Sakura Power
by Camy-Tay
Summary: Just read it if you're a Sakura fan.
1. Akatsuki Attack

Sakura was tired. Tired of always being in her teammates way.

Well, that probably wasn't true anymore since Sasuke left. A lot of things had changed in the first two years. After he'd been gone for five, things were extremely different. But that voice was still in the back of her head.

"You're weak...You're weak."

Never once was she strong. And when she was finally recognized in all the nation's as the strongest ninja, she only heard the voice saying "you're weak" in her head still, driving her harder than she ever drove herself before. It scared all of her friends and her recently-realized cousins, but she had to.

She felt it was her fault--that her clan in Suna was almost destroyed, that she allowed Orochimaru to seal the soul inside her and take her memories. That her adoptive parents had died in the battle for Konoha while they tried to protect her after all the things she did and said.

"Hey, Sakura!" Naruto yelled, catching up to his pink-haired friend. He had come to terms with himself and now only thought of her as a sister. "Tsunade-baachan's too plastered to train today and Kakashi's on a mission. So Hinata-chan and I were wondering if you wanted to go to Ichiraku's with us. We haven't been with you lately. Do you know when your cousins are visiting from Suna and bringing Lee and the kids?"

"Temari-neechan said she and Lee are going to come in a few months with Hiro, Junko and Gai. Gaara-niichan said he may be here in the next week, but no Sara or Riku-chibi. Kankurou just plain doesn't want to come. He likes his honey-moon _very_ much," Sakura replied. Yes, Temari married Lee and had three kids--one of which had to be named after Lee's "awesome sensei"--and the Sand Siblings were her cousins. Sai was too--the last of the clan, besides her and her older brother. Or so she always believed.

"So, when's Sai coming back from his mission?" Naruto asked.

Sakura shrugged. "Soon I hope. Anyways, I'm going to pass on the ramen. Today I can actually train on my own. I'll see you later, okay?"

She didn't wait for the reply as she walked off to a random clearing deep inside the forest and started to erect several clones to fight. She never liked the dummies anymore--they were too easy. Instead she preferred the simple clones that fought her as they would in actual combat. "Rasuto kekkei genkai: Onsei!" she yelled out. Yes, her clan had a "bloodline inheritance limit" like Byaakugan and Sharingan--for hundreds of years, her clan had been the best of the best. But that all changed when the Akatsuki invaded when she was seven--and on her birthday too.

Suddenly a voice laughed at her and she deactivated her Onsei (it means "voice" or "sound (concept of)" in case you didn't know) and threw a kunai in the direction of the noise. "Show yourself!" she commanded.

"No!" a voice yelled back, reminding her terribly of her brother. He was a traitor--he left her at the edge of their clan-grounds to go with Orochimaru and refused to take her with him. Sakura's brother was so much like Sasuke--even their names. Sasu and Sasuke. Only Sasu was Itachi's age and used to be friends with the elder Uchiha.

"Sasu Rasuto, get your damn ass out here and let me finish off the clan!" Sakura demanded, misplacing the voice. "Even if we all live, you are the only one that will still bear the Rasuto name."

Then Sasuke walked out from behind a tree, just as rain fell upon everything around them. "Well, well, well. Look whose trying to be very brave right now."

The pink-haired kunoichi grit her teeth. Sasuke had run off with a band of S-class criminals and would want to kill her too. But training left her exhausted--still with chakra, just exhausted. "What the hell do you want, Sas-UKE?" she sneered. "If I'm right you've killed Orochimaru?" She watched him smirked and gave his famous two-letter response. "How does it feel to be an uke without a seme to--"

"The fuck? I'm not gay! Nor am I subserviant to anybody!" he yelled back.

"Sasuke-kun!" another voice yelled. This time it was female and familiar. Who was that girl from Sound again? Sarin? No, it didn't start with an S. Kasu? Kari? No. Did it even start with a K? Probably not. "Sasuke-kun, are you okay?" she asked, appearing at his side with the other two Sound-nin from the chuunin exams. Jugo and...Seichi? "Did the bith hurt you?"

"Damn I'm bad with names," Sakura said aloud. "Okay, freeze. You are definitely Jugo and I know who Sas-UKE is," she said, pointing to Sasuke and Jugo both with their "respectful" names. "Is your name...Suigetsu! I came close!" she cheered, kicking her legs up with her arms pumped up. "Here I was thinking it was Seichi. that was one of my cousin's names. Anyways, so you're...Arisa?" she guessed.

"The fuck?" _Karin_ yelled. "Hell no!"

Sakura looked flustered. "Ina? Ren? Akira? Hikari? Hikaru? Hika? Damn, what is it?" a very mad Cherry Blossom screamed.

"Hey, Sakura! I see you!" Naruto yelled from high above on the Tsunade's Mountain-face. "And I see Sai! He's on his way back! Watch this!"

"_NANI_?" Sakura screamed, seeing Naruto start to swing dangerously on the mountains. "Naruto-kun! Are you trying to get me killed by Hinata-chan? Get your damn ass down here right now safely...Naruto!" she screamed, running towards the mountains with some of her monsterous chakra.

Sasuke looked back at his group and then back at Sakura as he smirked, seeing Karin's pissed face. Then it suddenly disappeared as he watched Sakura backflip on trees all the way up to the mountain top to black-caped figures behind Naruto.

"Give us the kyuubi!" Itachi demanded of Naruto. How the Akatsuki got into Konoha, no one could tell, but there they were. "We want his power!"

"Never!" Naruto yelled, backing up. He had to be careful--with all the rain pouring the rocks had gotten slippery. "How did you guys get it anyways?" he yelled over the thunder.

Kisame shrugged. "Knocked out one guard, the other was sleeping. Go figure."

Just as they were about to advance, Sakura jumped up and blocked Kisame's sword. "Not so fast, fucker. You still have hell to pay for my clan," Sakura yelled, her face illuminated by lightning. "Naruto-kun, run!"

"Sakura? It's okay. I've accepted the terms of our clan's massacre," another hooded figure replied, coming towards the front. "It's nice to see you after so long apart. Imouto."

She froze. "Kabuto-niichan?"

Kabuto and Sasu had been the best of friends. As cousins, the three hung-out a lot. But he died with Orochimaru, didn't he? Sasu left to protect Kabuto, but after he saw what Orochimaru did to her, he left to go with his best friend Itachi instead to defeat Orochimaru.

"Wait, we have the kyuubi and the Rasuto no Tatsujin? ("Last Master") Why don't we take both of their powers?" Deidara interupted.

What they didn't expect was the clap of thunder and bolt of lightning at once, cracking the mountain right before Naruto's feet and causing him to tumble back.

Without even thiking, she did a backflip clearing the mountain and going after Naruto. "Rasuto kekkei genkai: Onsei!" she yelled as she tumbled back with him.

_"They say  
They don't trust  
You, me, we, us  
So we'll fall  
If we must  
Cause it's you, me  
And it's all about  
It's all about  
It's all about us (all about us)  
It's all about  
All about us (all about us)  
There's a thing that they can't touch  
'Cause ya know (ah ah)  
It's all about us (all about us)  
It's all aboutAll about usall about us  
We'll run away if we must  
'Cause ya know  
It's all about us (It's all about us)  
It's all about love (It's all about us)  
In you I can trust (It's all about us)  
It's all about us."_

She sang as she tumbled down and landed safely on her feet with Naruto in her arms. Sasuke watched wide-eyed. She had a kekkei genkai? And since when was she a Rasuto? Wasn't the weakling a Haruno?

"Naruto, we have to run," Sakura told him, putting him down and taking his hand as the Akatsuki followed them down the hill. "Come on!"

"Sakura, thank you!" Naruto gasped as they started to run faster than even Sasuke was. That surprised the boy--he knew Naruto would be able to catch his pace someday, but Sakura?

Karin tugged hi shoulder. "Is that the same old teammate you used to have? Her chakra patterns changed--she has immense chaakra now. Almost bottomless."

Sakura looked behind her and saw three or so of the figures starting to break away and catch up with them. While she could still go faster, Naruto couldn't. So she had to stop this.

"Naruto, run back to Hinata-chan. I'll distract them and get them out of the village," Sakura ordered as they started to pass the clearing Sakura left Sasuke and his gang in. "If I have to, I'll go. They'll forget all about you after they have their sights on me. Just go as fast as you can and tell everybody that I love them."

Naruto was scared at how serious it sounded. But he nodded and with a few tears he ran off.

Sakura stopped running and turned. Sasuke watched as she readied for a fight. It was so new to him to see her like this. And if she really did have the chakra Karin said she did, then she certainly wasn't the same weak kunoichi anymore.

Now was the time to test her. The members that broke ahead had caught up.

Sakura took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Sasuke noticed when she opened them they changed from that jade green to an onyx black like his and her hair quickly changed from a damp silvery-pink to raven-black like Sasuke's.

_"Not gonna get us  
They're not gonna get us  
Not gonna get us  
Not gonna get us  
Not gonna get us  
They're not gonna get us  
They're not gonna get us  
Not gonna get us  
They're not gonna get us  
Not gonna get us!  
Starting from here, let's make a promise  
You and me, let's just be honest  
We're gonna run, nothing can stop us  
Even the night that falls all around us  
Soon there will be laughter and voices  
Beyond the clouds over the mountains  
We'll run away on roads that are empty  
Lights from the airfield shining upon you  
Nothing can stop us, not now, I love you  
They're not gonna get us,they're not gonna get us  
Nothing can stop us, not now, I love you  
They're not gonna get us,they're not gonna get us  
They're not gonna get us(Not..)  
They're not gonna get us, gonna get us, gonna get us..(Not gonna get us)  
They're not gonna get us (gonna get us, gonna get us!)  
Not gonna get us  
Not gonna get us, gonna get us.  
Not gonna get us  
NOT GONNA GET US, GONNA GET US!(Not gonna get us)  
Get Us, get us..(Not gonna get us)  
Not gonna get us  
_Not gonna get us  
We'll run away, keep everything simple  
Night will come down, our guardian angel  
We rush ahead, the crossroads are empty  
Our spirits rise, they're not gonna get us  
My love for you, always forever  
Just you and me, all else is nothing  
_Not going back, not going back there  
They don't understand,  
They don't understand us  
Not gonna get us, gonna get us, gonna get us (gonna get.. get us.)  
Not gonna get us (gonna get.. gonna get..)  
Not gonna get us, gonna get us..Not gonna get us  
Nothing can stop us, not now, I love you  
They're not gonna get us,  
they're not gonna get us  
Nothing can stop us, not now, I love you  
They're not gonna get us,  
they're not gonna get usThey're not gonna get us(Not gonna get us)  
They're not gonna get us, gonna get us  
They're not gonna get us(Not gonna get us)  
Not gonna get us, get us  
Not gonna get us, get us  
Not gonna get us."_

Suddenly the figures all got blown back as the sound waves crashed into them. Now she put her hands on the ground and frontflipped, bringing her hands up to reveal giant fans.


	2. Shannaro

"Sakura! Don't!" Kabuto yelled, getting back up. "Why are you only using Onsei? I thought you could do more than that!"

"Sakura's not here right now, please leave a message," and other female voice said from inside Sakura's body. "this is Shannaro speaking. Where's Sasu-kun, you ass? I want my boyfriend right now!"

Sasuke choked. "I'm not your boyfriend! And there's a K-E at the end of my name."

Instead another voice yelled out from the Akatsuki. "Leave my baby-sister alone, Shannaro! I was and never will be your boyfriend. Just because Orochimaru is an ass, doesn't mean the two of you can take it out on my sister." The figure turned to Kabuto. "Dude, when you were trying to kill the bitch, you should have checked who the hell her father was and if he was right behind us!"

Sasuke froze. Orochimaru said only once or twice in passing that he had a child. Was this...Shannaro her? But why would his daughter be inside Sakura?

Karin gasped. She had grown up with Orochiamru and knew his daughter. When the Akatsuki had destroyed the Rasuto Clan, he went to take any survivors and use them. He brought his only daughter--Shannaro--with him to show her what one day she would be capable of doing.

There were four survivors from the battle--two older boys, a small boy that looked like one of the older boys, and a girl that seemed to be the reason they all weren't dead. two of them had silvery-gray hair and one had raven-hair and onyx eyes. The girl, he said, had pink hair and green eyes. Sometimes they would flash blue, though.

Karin didn't remember why, but she went there with them. Shannaro took an immediate liking to the raven-haired boy who looked just like Sasuke had at that age, and she claimed to Orochimaru that the boy would be her husband someday.

He asked the boys to come with him and when they refused he killed the boy that was several years younger--perhaps around the same age as the girl with pink hair. That was when Kabuto decided to join--he lost his brother and Orochimaru promised to bring him back.

But the other refused, saying he would watch his little sister and if he dared lay a finger on her to harm her, he wouldn't hesitate to fight back.

Karin hadn't been more than eight maybe when it happened--around the same age as the boy Orochimaru killed for sure. And then she watched as Kabuto got so annoyed with Shannaro trying to hit on his cousin that he took up the nearest katana and sliced her throat straight across and spat on her, saying not to mess with the Rasuto family.

"Sasuke-kun, we need to help them! That's not the girl you think she is--if we don't help them, Shannnaro can destroy everyone!" Karin told him, running out. "Hey! Shannaro! Look at me! Remember me? Leave Sasu alone and get out of his sister's body already--he made his choice and you weren't it!"

Sasuke watched as his new teammate was shot back in a gust of wind the new Sakura--Shannaro, apparently--shot at her from the fans. "Wow. And Daddy was sure I would be as weak as this child after he placed the seals on her! I guess the curse mark was just the power she needed. let's see her body use it!"

"Shannaro! Sakura didn't do anything to you!" Sasu yelled.

Shannaro laughed maliciously. "Sasu-kun! Soon I'll be able to help you with the Rasuto Clan! Your sister is an idiot--she allowed me to roam her mind like I was her Inner and I gained up energy. My body is getting more and more powerful and soon I'll be able to kill her and leave her body for mine.

"But you should be proud of her--she's gotten so much stronger with my constant reminders of the words Itachi-kun's brother told her once. She's been trying to get a mission to kill all of the Akatsuki and avenge your clan. Very much like Itachi-kun's brother, but she just started to look for revenge about two and a half years ago. How's my dad?"

"Dead," Sasuke replied from behind. Shannaro spun towards him. "I killed him myself. That's why she started to remember--I killed the sealer. Everything should be coming back gradually. Who are you?"

"Orochimaru's daughter, Shannaro. Sakura was a simpleton in the way of me and my love's eternal life to--ah! What's wrong? Sasu-kun, what are you doing?" she asked, looking behind her and seeing Kabuto holding her in place with a jutsu similar to Shikamaru's Shadow Possession.

Itachi came up from behind and knocked her down, throwing a ofoudo (spell scroll) on her back immobilizing her and not allowing her to transform back into Sakura. "This is for Sakura. You mess with her, you mess with us all. she was going to be my sister, too. Bitch," he breathed into her ear. Straightening up, he yelled. "Sasu! Hurry up and finish her! I want Sakura back to being just her soon."

"Shannaro, meet your maker!" Sasu yelled, spinning and doing a side-flip, coming down and throwing a fire ball at Shannaro from his hands. "Fire Phoenix Flying!"Sasuke watched in awe as he saw someone else using his family's skill. Shannaro screamed as she seemed to be destroyed in the fire. In her place came Sakura completely unharmed as the flames died away."Sakura!" Sasuke yelled, running towards her and ripping the ofoudo off of her. He picked her up and motioned for the recently righted Karin, Jugo and Suigetsu to come with him as they disappeared and ran far away from Konoha and to their base. "Hey, wake up! Come on, Sakura!" he whispered as he laid her down on his bed to rest. They used the old Sound base, but they didn't call themselves Sound anymore. And now that Sasuke saw what Sakura did, he wasn't sure that they deserved the name of Sound-nin.

"Sasuke-kun?" Karin asked. She walked in and watched Sakura sleeping. It was the second time she had seen something awful happen to this girl and do nothing. "How is she?"

He sighed and let her lay down and rest. "Karin, you have some explaining to do. I want to know what you know about Orochimaru and his daughter."

She nodded, knowing it was finally time to tell.

Sakura sighed and turned over in bed. "Sasu-niichan..." she whispered in her sleep. Sasuke watched as she started to move in a sleep-walk manner. She had interrupted Karin before she got very far, and now they were both watching the girl.

To her, she was in a memory-like dream, back when her life was perfect. "Aniki, guess what's coming up soon! I bet you forgot...Yay! Aniki remembered my birthday! I can't wait...Yep. Seven! I wish Sai-niichan and Gaara-niichan and Kankuro-niichan and Temari-neechan could be here...I promise, I'm going to find him! Sai was abducted and when I find him I'll always watch over him!"

"It's like she's seven again," Sasuke whispered to Karin.

She shook her head. "She's almost seven--weren't you listening? I think she's having a flashback. She had one of these the day Orochimaru brought us to the Rasuto Clan grounds. She was sleeping and the suddenly acted out the day that she lost this Sai kid. It was halfway through the year she turned six--she said a princess couldn't be happy without her favorite duke. I think it was some kind of joke.""Sasu, who am I supposed to marry?" she asked, drawing their attention back. "But everyone has to...What do mean? I have to have a sixth-cousin at least...So, whose he?...Itachi-niichan's really nice! Is he anything like him?...You should know already...Okay. Good night, Aniki."And at that, Sakura went back to sleep. Karin and Sasuke both sighed. "All right, Karin. Continue."


	3. Sakura's Past

"First, how do you know so much about Sakura past?" Sasuke asked Karin as soon as they settled back down. "And why does everyone say she's not a Haruno anymore? She's always been the weak Sakura Haruno I had to protect."

She sighed. "That was back when she had all those seals on her. If they were still on, I bet I'd never recognize her. Really, Orochimaru sealed her away until she was just a vessel. Her chakra system was and still is very rare. He may have sealed his daughter inside her, but he didn't want his daughter to get too powerful to the point he couldn't control her. Sakura's more powerful than you, but she still has several seals still."

That shocked him. "How do you know?"

"I told you, her chakra was _ALMOST_ bottomless. When the last seal is gone, her chakra will be no different than her blood. that girl is a hero, too. She's the reason why there are any Rasuto left. Orochimaru brought us to the clan-grounds as the Akatsuki were attacking. Shannaro and I grew up together and she treated me as a younger sister.

"When we got there, the first thing we did was hide and watch the fight. Shannaro was so entranced by Sasu Rasuto that she went straight to him. Meanwhile, I saw a flash of pink and followed it. There was this little girl with chakra so powerful I felt like I should be kneeling before her--that was Sakura."

Sakura was waking up. Somehow, it computed her mind that she should not be in a bed, so she did not move, she did not groan, she didn't even open her eyes. She just listened.

Sasuke was shocked. "How could that be Sakura? What was so special with her back then? Besides, I remember my brother knew Sasu. This happened around the time my clan was massacred. She lived in Konoha even back then, didn't she?"

Karin laughed. "Sasuke-kun, haven't you ever heard of the Subaku no hime? Desert Princess? And, true, Itachi was friends with Sasu. But Sakura-chan was a more powerful being than can even be described. There have only been seventy cases since the AD era, and none before then. Sakura holds a chakra system so complex that it's intertwined with her blood system. The Byaakugan can see your chakra points, right? All they see when they look at Sakura's is her blood.

"She was a prophesized child. Her clan was the most powerful for hundreds and hundreds of years, ne?"

He remembered. The Rasuto clan was so powerful even kekkei genkai like Sharingan and Byaakugan were obsolete. In fact, the Rasuto clan had more than one kekkei gankai, though no one controlled them all. The motto had been "SasuxSaku" for the past few years, but he never understood why. "To shine x to bloom" was such a strange thing to say. Itachi said it had something to do with the two most powerful there, but he didn't know.

Sakura fought every urge to gasp. She was with Sasuke! How did she end up with him? She was just trying to get rid of the Akatsuki and keep her friends and family from harm--something she was better at causing them.

"Anyways, back to the point. I watched the girl running all around, every time someone from the Akatsuki coming near her, someone sacrificing their self for her, or she herself eliminating them. Then I watched her and followed her to the middle of the compound. It was like they were celebrating a party that day--everything was set up like a little girl's party."

Sakura started to cry. That was right. She was celebrating her seventh birthday that day. Sasu had brought her into the village to her ninja preschool and then to train with him while everyone else set the place up for her birthday.

The stoic boy noticed her crying and--believing she was still asleep--leaned over to comfort her. He wiped the tears away and gave her a chaste kiss on the lips. He wanted to always protect her.

Whenever she would cry before, it'd be for him and he couldn't comfort her. Now he didn't know why she cried and felt like he could comfort her. When he was the pain, he knew he'd just cause more. But when he wasn't, he could care for _HIS_ Cherry Blossom. His and no one else's.

His affection shocked Sakura, but she used her training to stay still like she was still asleep.

Karin smiled at the antics between the two and continued. She knew that he was in love with her, but before she didn't want to admit it. Now, she felt obligated to admit it--she had never been in love with him, just confused as to the depth and placement of her affections for the boy. She felt more like his mother.

"Right in the middle were two Rasuto. He had black hair and black eyes, just like you. Black hair is one of the signals for the wind-controlling kekkei genkai. And several clan members had plain onyx eyes, including Sasu and his father. The other had soft mahogany hair and bright blue eyes. they were fighting off five Akatsuki, but were flagging.

"Rasuto all have immense chakra because many of their moves need it, but they were just exhausted. The Akatsuki finished them--right in front of Sakura. They sliced the man's head off and raped the woman before shoving a katana through her heart--right in front of their young daughter..."

He watched as Sakura kept crying next to him. He carefully slid down next to her as not to wake her, and hugged her waist close to him and he kept giving her chaste kisses on her cheek and wiping away tears.

"Poor Sakura," he whispered, afraid to wake her up and have to act cold towards her again. "She went through so much more than me. Why is it that she always has the power to make me feel guilty? Someone should die for what they did to her. I should never have been allowed to hurt her, too. I'm worthless and a jerk. A bastard that was graced by an angel and just threw the angel to hell."

Sakura almost laughed at the analogy, but didn't want to lose this contact. She was afraid of what would happen if she did "wake."

"She was so sad. She picked up both of them and just cried over them, saying it was all her fault. Then the Akatsuki started towards her. Sasu must have been nearby because he came to protect her--and the Akatsuki just shoved him aside. he hit down hard and when he screamed out, Sakura lost it."

That was it. _Karin! _Her name was Karin! Sakura smiled on the inside.

Karin seemed to know a lot. maybe she knew what happened to her. After she saw Sasu go down, she must have fallen unconscious because she didn't remember anything for hours. But she knew her brother still left at night on her birthday.

"She...I don't even know how to put this. 'Hidden demon: Last Master!' She yelled that out and suddenly there was this giant light that engulfed her and her parents and then she came out. It was beautiful--her parents bodies were laid out straight, and you could see their spirits watching over her as they drifted higher. they were smiling back down at her. I wasn't close enough, but Kabuto told me once when I was telling him about it that her parents were saying they loved her when they were doing that."

Sakura cried silently, tears flowing freely. Her parents loved her, and she killed them. She was a monster, and yet they loved her.

"She was like a totally different person. Things went so fast, but she destroyed all of the Akatsuki. She was protecting everyone she loved--her brother must have been the closest thing to her heart, because she didn't until he was hurt for her. I found Shannaro and we looked for any survivors. We found--of course--Sakura and Sasu, Kabuto, and what I know now was Kabuto's brother.

"He had a handsome brother. But he was half-dead and I was crying, saying we had to save him. Instead, Orochimaru threatened the boys to come with him and gain the power needed to avenge the clan, in return allowing him to take over Sasu's body eventually and Kabuto performing any medical jutsu he may need, and Sarutobi performing the Forbidden Jutsu to bring back his arms someday. When they all refused, Orochimaru sliced Sarutobi's throat and killed him."

Sakura cried even more. Sarutobi--Kabuto's brother--wasn't much older than her, and she had promised she'd protect him as the Clan Head someday. She would be the first ever because she was the first ever to be born with control of all the kekkei genkai. And yet, she just let her cousin die--just as she let one be abducted by ROOT.

"Kabuto joined with the promise of resurrection of Sarutobi, but once he killed Shannaro, the deal was cut. He had to serve out Orochimaru's life, and Sarutobi would remain dead. Sasu left to protect both Sakura and Kabuto, thinking if Orochimaru forgot her, Sakura would be safe.

"For awhile, Orochimaru kept Shannaro's soul with him, but after Sai was found and Sakura made her presence known to Orochimaru again, he placed Shannaro into Sakura's body and removed past memories as well as most of her power. That was when she came to Konoha--she was about seven and a half. That was also when Sasu just the Akatsuki, wanting a way to kill Orochimaru. She was adopted by the Haruno and raised as if she was their own. Her life was simplistic, and she had no memories of the past.

"Orochimaru's presence at the exams sent her memories jarring open. Shannaro acted like an inner-soul for her, which every Rasuto had. Orochimaru had this thing with Shannaro: she had to gain back enough energy for her body, which she gain from Sakura. Once she had enough, the seal that held her in would break and Shannaro would have her own body back. At that point, Shannaro could kill Sakura and it wouldn't matter."

Sakura tried to stop the tears but they just came out faster. She gave that thing free-range and she was so stupid that she believed that it was supposed to be there. She was _letting_ the "Giant Snake" win!

Sasuke thought of how much pain she would have gone through in all these years if she had been like him. Would she love him? No. There was less pain. But would he love her? He wasn't sure. He knew he loved Sakura as she was--any way she was--as a child, and even more now. Especially knowing her past. But as a kid, he wouldn't understand--maybe they'd never have a chance.

Besides, she'd be in more pain than he caused.

"But Orochimaru didn't want Shannaro to be all-powerful in Sakura, because then shed never want to leave the body. So, he sealed all of her powers away and made her weak. if she was weak, Shannaro would want out. And she almost was until she met you us again in battle before you killed Orochimaru.

"Meanwhile, the Akastuki still wanted the Rasuto no Tatsujin from Sakura--which, you'll have to ask her about--and so they tracked her and Naruto down. Sasu never joined the hunts because he just wanted to kill Shannaro before she was revived and he and Itachi would go off with the leader and look for ways to do just that without harming Sakura.

"She...She's awake," Karin told him when she finally saw Sakura's eyes flutter.

Inside, her true Inner muttered. "_DAMN!"_


	4. Sakurahime

Sasuke stopped kissing her. Maybe she was still asleep enough to not realizing he'd been doing that.

That's when Sakura realized she might be able to get out of it. She yawned and turned over. When she opened her eyes, she took that second a waking person would take to realize something. In that time, she had her fun of taking a kiss from Sasuke on his lips and saying, "Good morning, Sasuke-kun," turning over again, then shooting up pretending to realize what she did.

Karin watched amused as Sasuke's face went bright red.

As Sakura shoot up her eyes bulged and she screamed, then cradled her head like she was thinking. "What the hell? Why am I in bed with an Uke? Was I out drinking with Tsunade last night? I must have been...no! I was out training!" Sakura turned back to him and punched him square in the jaw, sending him across the room and getting up. "You ass! I was minding my own business and you abducted me!"

"I did not!" he protested, getting up and rubbing his jaw. When did she get this strong? Oh yeah! She had that chakra-control and she trained with Tsunade AND she had--if he was to believe Karin--that weird chakra-blood-fusion-thing. "I took you in after the Akatsuki attacked you!"

"How did you get into Konoha anyways?" Sakura demanded, fuming. Actually, how DID he and the Akatsuki get into Konoha? They had Jounin at the gates that night.

"Shikamaru and Ino were watching the gates. I waited until Ino was yelling at Shikamaru for falling asleep and we just waltzed right through. I'd assume the Akatsuki did the same."

"No way! They came like an hour after you. Which means...Hey, Uke, you've had sex before, ne?" she asked.

That itself almost made him turn fifty shades of red. "Of course," he lied. he was waiting for Sakura. He would always wait for Sakura. "And not with guys. I'm totally straight. Why, do you want to lose your virginity now? I can make Karin go away and spend the day taking it away from you," he offered, inside hoping she'd say yes. That would be a very fun day for him.

"So can you really fall asleep less than...knowing those two...ten minutes after you climax?" she asked. "And dream on, Uchiha. I'd rather suck your cock than give that away to you!" she yelled. Then she realized she slipped up. "Shit! What did I just say? I meant I'd never let you touch me!" she lied. She'd rather do both.

Sasuke turned bright red as said part of anatomy started to get hard. He could very much enjoy that, too. Why did she have to grow up so much, too?

Now in place of a chunky and gawky pink-haired girl that he liked for her clumsy cuteness, was a bloomed Cherry Blossom. She was slender with curves in all the right places and didn't seem to have an ounce of fat. Even her breasts--full and decent--seemed to be all muscle, and her butt was just enough, but not too much.

Amazing how people can change so much. he wondered how much he changed.

"Knowing Shikamaru, he was asleep again in the next minute," Sasuke answered, slyly ignoring the question that would prove he was still a virgin.

"I guess. That'd mean the Akatsuki had just knocked Ino out to get in," Sakura said to herself aloud. Then back to Karin and Sasuke. "Thank you, I guess, for watching out for me. But now, I'm going back home. Last night Shannaro and I were finally separated, and now I need to find out what happened."

As she started to leave, Sasuke stopped her. "Hey! You can't just leave! We took you as a hostage. You'll be staying here for quite a while. Besides, you told Naruto you would leave if you have to. It's late enough that when they couldn't find you, you left. No matter your intentions, you're now a missing-nin. Welcome to the club, Sakura." He smiled. "You're one of us."

"Fuck!" she yelled on the stairs to leave. "Why the hell do bad things always happen to me?" she yelled. She needed to yell, or she'd never vent anything. "All right, Uchiha. I'll stay here with you, but right now I'm leaving. There's something called training that I'd like to get done," Sakura agreed.

"Ugh!" she screamed as she took down yet another tree with her anger.

Sakura couldn't believe she could ever get herself into this predicament. Really, how could she just blatantly let herself do something that'd be regrettable later? And now she didn't have anything to take it out on.

'Hiya!' a cheery little voice echoed in her head.

'Who are you?' Sakura asked in her mind.

'My name's Sakura-hime. Who are you? You're so BIG!' the voice replied.

That was her! That was the way she talked when she was seven-ish. The voice she used to have in her head! Her real Inner. 'I'm Sakura. Are you my Inner?'

'I suppose. But I thought Inners grew with the person!' Sakura-hime replied. 'And the last thing I remember was letting you use your title-thing. Was everybody so unoriginal to call you the Last Master? Really! Just because you're the MOST POWERFUL, doesn't make you the Last!' she squealed.

'Silly! The clan name was Rasuto! Last. I don't think it's that strange anymore. Maybe the fact that Shannaro locked you away is why you're still so young!' Sakura rationalized.

It made sense. Sort of.

Sasuke walked up behind Sakura as she was training and watched her. She was smiling and seemed to be talking to something in her head.

Suddenly she yelled, "Rasuto no Jutsu: Hireki!" ("hireki" in this jutsu means "reveal")

Suddenly he saw a young little Sakura there, standing with an adorable smile and a cute little crown. he walked up to the older Sakura and smiled. "Hey," he greeted.

Both of them shrieked, and then the older Sakura laughed. "Sasuke-kun! You scared me!"

He was confused when the other one nodded her agreement. "I just wanted to say hello. And who is this cute little princess?" he asked, bending down and smiling at Sakura-hime. He always wanted kids, or a little sibling--he knew how to treat them and how to be. He was good at it too. "Is she going to be staying very long? I'd love to know her.""Hiya!" she greeted, smiling. "It's up to me if I can stay." She looked at Sakura.

"Definitely," she replied, hugging Sakura-hime. "Sasuke-kun, this is Sakura-hime. She's my true Inner. Most Rasuto when they're young learn how to make their Inners semi-permanent beings outside of their bodies. Sakura-hime, this is Sasuke Uchiha. he's Itachi-niichan's baby-brother."Sakura-hime squealed. "Really? Weren't we supposed to be--" Sakura-hime caught Sakura's warning and shut her mouth before she could say anymore. "So, he isn't Sasu-niichan? he looks a lot like Aniki." She pouted and squished his face, making Sasuke's eyes go wide and Sakura laugh. "You look really funny," Sakura-hime told him, kissing his lips with a quick child's kiss, like a daughter would give her parents. "I guess Aniki would be a lot older, too. Sakura-neechan, hold are we?"

"I stopped counting birthdays so long ago," she replied honestly, looking down. "I think we're--"

"I'm eighteen now, and Sakura's almost eighteen," he replied, thinking fast. He watched the shock on her face. "What? I turned eighteen July 23. It's March 23 now. Your birthday is March 28, right?"

Sakura was stunned he remembered, but Sakura-hime only squealed. "Yay! My birthday's coming up! My birthday, my birthday, my birthday! I'm gonna be eighteen! Wait..." She frowned. "I'm only gonna be eight. You'll be eighteen. If Shannaro disrupted this whole thing, then I'm only aging one year since the clan."

"Well, we'll do something special for you. I promise," Sasuke told her, smiling.


	5. Can't We Get Along?

"Is he serious?" Suigetsu muttered to Juugo. "We're supposed to be S-class criminals, not baby-sitters. Where did the kid come from anyways?"

Juugo sighed. Suigetsu was annoying like this. If he ever paid attention, he'd know what was going on--and what the kid was. Surprisingly, the kid looked familiar to him--he just didn't know why or from where. "It's Sakura's kid. Like, it's her from her memory. And you heard what Sasuke-sama said. No hurting his girlfriend, okay? I think that means his kid-thing too."

Suigetsu's head twisted and his eyes bulged. "That thing is his kid? Whoa! Who knew we'd ever actually get to see the next generation of Uchiha?"

Now Karin sighed. Sasuke and Sakura came back from somewhere with a little girl swinging between their arms. She immediately recognized it as the one she had been too chicken to save from Shannaro all those years back. Now Sasuke wanted them to plan a birthday party for her and set the entire base up for it.

"Dude, it's not his kid! Sakura took her Inner out of her and...layman's terms, that's her. That's exactly what she looked like at some point as a kid. By my guess, she didn't get her birthday yet. Maybe she was getting ready for it. But we have to give her one now. Now shut up and help me hang the damn banister!" she replied, whacking him.

Suddenly Sakura-hime walked in with Sasuke holding her hand and being slightly dragged behind her. She squealed and hugged Sasuke's leg, which she was barely as tall as. "Sasuke-niisan! It's so pretty! Why doesn't Sakura-neechan like it here? It's so cool!"

Suigetsu groaned. "All right already! What the hell is it? Sasuke's kid or that pink bitch's sister?"

"You said a bad word, you said a bad word!" Sakura-hime chanted, pointing at him.

"Yeah. And if you don't shut the fuck up, I will break that fucking finger for you, too," he said.

Sakura-hime squeaked and Sasuke glared at Suigetsu. "Are you trying to get yourself killed? She's Sakura. That's all. If I hear you say or said any other bad words in front of her, you will face my consequences," he warned him.

Sakura-hime smiled. "Arigatou gozaimasu, Sasuke-kun! I bet your Inner's really nice too!"

That took Sasuke back. How did she know he had an Inner? Karin caught him once or twice, and told him he had one too. But how did Sakura-hime know?

Sai was getting tired fast. He had just come home to Konoha after a dangerous ANBU mission and was excited to see his cousin's smiling face. Every since they decided to start living with each other, he would always come back and have his sisterly-cousin to tease. Sakura had once called him her "favorite duke" when he called her a princess, and he liked being in that world again.

He didn't get that world, however, when he came back the house they shared and it was empty.

Well, it wasn't really EMPTY. Sai always assumed she offered him to live with her as a way to cope with her sudden loneliness, and he agreed to help her through the memories that came back, and the Shannaro attack. They decided to adopt a kawaii little fox and name it Riku and give another three to their favorite couple.

It was scratching at the door when he came in, and whimpering.

His first instinct was to see the Future Hokage and the Godaime. Sadly, he realized he was not the only cousin of Sakura's to decide that. The pity to him, was he wasn't in the mood to socialize with the Kazekage, Fan-girl and Puppet-boy as he called them oh so fondly.

"What do you mean she's gone?" Gaara exploded at Naruto, his gourd, popping the cork and sand starting to swirl out.

"Naruto, you idiot! You should have stopped her! It's dangerous! And what's more is they wouldn't even know she was there if you hadn't opened your big mouth, or needed saving!" Temari quipped.

"Dude, you ruined the perfect honey-moon with this shit! If I don't get a kid in the next few months, you're so dead!" Kankuro yelled at him, making a very intimidating pose that looked more hysterical with all his make-up smeared.

Sai sighed. And the Godaime was wondering why he didn't want to be here!

Deciding enough blame was going to Naruto, Tsunade smashed an empty sake bottle on her desk and breaking it, silencing everybody--except Sai, who looked like he was going to fall asleep. He always creeped her out.

"Guys, it wasn't Naruto's fault she's gone. Sakura as we all know has this issue with not wanting to let anybody down. That as I believe Temari brought up once, was caused by the belief she let down the entire clan. She took this as her sacrifice, and we need to honor her for it."

Again, the silent cousin sighed. then he spoke. "I don't think Sakura's dead. Riku is like a Sakura-detector. If she's dead, Riku would be howling. Which means we have to assume she's like a missing-nin at present. So, if she comes back: how do we treat her?"

Suddenly Shizune ran in. "Tsunade-sama! News from the ANBU said that there were traces of Sasuke Uchiha being here last night."

"You mean tonight," Tsunade muttered. It was still before dawn. "How did the news hit Suna that fast, anyways?"

Temari showed her a pendant. "Sakura's known as the Subaku no Hime. As an offering to her as a child, she was given a Person Pendant by our uncle--Kabuto's father. He gave it to her brother and said it would tell him anything about her at any time. The day we came back from a trip that made us miss her seventh birthday, I found this and a note."

"It's your job to watch over her now. Take good care of her Temari-chan. And you too, Kankuro--no matter what you're doing, I mean it. Maybe you too, Gaara-kun; just don't kill her with that gourd or the demon or anything. Love Sasu," Gaara recited for her.

"If the Uchiha bastard was here, he has my baby cousin. I won't rest until I know her to be safe from harm."

Gaara knew she was, and happier than normal too, just by looking at the pendant. And he knew that the Uchiha loved her, even if no one wanted to admit it. Also, he admitted inwardly that she was probably the safest with him.

"Gaara-san!" Lee whined. Oh yes, the "youthful Bushy Brows" was there. He was just sleeping and hiding from Gaara's sand. "If I know Sakura-san and she's with Sasuke-san, she will not come back until she has him with him and he agrees to never leave again. We have to consider her missing at this point and set a point to her return. And we know she will return with him, refusing to come back without Sasuke-san having the same punishment as her. She will argue that they are no different after she left, even unwillingly."

Naruto fumed. "Damn, Lee! You actually make sense when you're half-asleep. Go back to sleep and figure this out for us. What do we do?"

"I've got it," Tsunade told them.

Sakura was not allowed to leave the room without an escort, which in most cases was Sasuke. That's why Sasuke's knew something was wrong when he didn't find Sakura in THEIR room when he went to ask her about Inners.

Instead, he was worried when he realized his desired life-partner was missing and all of his followers were still setting up, Sakura-hime watching them and having the time of her life.

Then he finally found her. Admist many yuki yanagi, she sat on a bench as a lone sakura blew it's petals around her. He heard her singing, and he was shocked. It was a song she obviously made that was controlling the winds.

"Sakura!" he called out, surprising her and making her drop the winds. The sakura merely fluttered to the ground as he sat next to her. "Sakura-hime mentioned something to me...Do I have an Inner?" he asked.

"Yep. Everyone does--two actually. Where is she now?" she replied, looking.

"Inside with Karin and Juugo watching her. Suigetsu doesn't much like her, but the other two enjoy her." he hesitated. "Can...I have two Inner?"

"Yeah, we all do. An Inner, and a Demon Inner. The demon won't actually do anything unless the person isn't stronger than it. Itachi wasn't. He actually didn't kill the clan, either." She looked at Sasuke, closed her eyes and smiled. "Do you want to meet your Inner?" she asked politely.

"Hn." Then he thought back to Itachi as Sakura was bringing it out. How did he not kill the clan?

Suddenly the two heard several gasps and turned.


	6. Sasukeouji

There was Sasuke, laying there like a young child--and next to him was a kneeling Sakura-hime. "Sasuke-kun! Daijobou?"

"Iie," his Inner sniffed.

Behind Sakura-hime was Karin, obviously the one that had escorted her out. She watched as the scene unfolded. On the bench, she noticed Sasuke looked at and away from Sakura without moving his head, his face getting redder and redder. On the ground was a crying Sasuke and a very concerned Sakura-hime, just about the same age.

Karin had to admit, even as kids they loved each other. She could tell from the way the two children acted around each other. The girl seemed extremely concerned and Sasuke seemed to be trying to look more brave. He was just a boy trying to impress a girl he liked. Childish and simplistic, just as life at their age should be.

Kabuto had explained Inners to her when they were with Orochimaru together. He was sweet and she liked him. He explained an Inner is the person in almost every sense, while at the same time they were their own person. If the Inner's person is stuck on or in a moment of time, their person will grow past it while their Inner is stuck there. It's up to the person to bring it back to age.

"Sakura, why is my Inner so young?" Sasuke questioned, the annoyed tone in his voice. "And why is he so sad? Did we know each other as kids?"

"I...I don't know," Sakura answered honestly. "I had assumed Sakura-hime was so young because that's around the age I was combined with Shannaro. But then your Inner would be your age. Damn! Maybe I should've listened to Kabuto-niichan when he was explaining Inners to me."

Sasuke shot her a "You've got to be kidding me. Now I'm screwed too" look and Sakura shrugged her shoulders. Then he shrugged off the look and put his arm around her waist and turned to watch the two.

"Sasuke-ouji, what's wrong?" Sakura-hime asked him, hugging him and tending to him the way Sakura tended to Sasuke during the chuunin exams. "Please let me help!"

"He killed them," he sniffed. Sasuke was ready to kick himself for letting his Inner be so puny and weak, but then he realized what he was talking about. "Itachi-niichan killed everybody! Kaasan and Tousan are dead! Everyone is! But Itachi...he, he let me live!"

Sakura hugged him and let her own tears fall. "That wasn't Aniki--it couldn't be Aniki! He wouldn't hurt anyone! maybe someone's framing him--someone didn't like him. We both know that. Don't worry, Sasuke-ouji--you still have me!"

The young Sasuke looked at her and she wiped away his tears. "Arigatou, Sakura-hime. Aishiteru." Suddenly he glomped her and made her fall as he hugged her. "I'm glad I have you. And I promise, I'll always protect you. You're my Special Person and no matter what I'll always love you!"

"S-Sa-Sasuke-ouji!" Sakura-hime laughed. "Of course--Itachi-niichan and Sasu-niichan would hurt you! But I love you, too. No matter what, I will never stop loving you. Because you are my Prince. Someday, we'll be Subaku no Ouji and Subaku no Hime. And Itachi-niichan will be nice again! And maybe Sasu-niichan will come back."

Sasuke cleared his throat. "Sakura-hime! Can you two come over here?"

A frightened little Sasuke walked over, slightly hiding behind Sakura-hime as she smiled brightly and walked over to Sasuke. She smiled the same way Sakura had towards him and hugged the young Sasuke tightly as she introduced them.

"Sasuke-ouji, this is Sakura-neechan and Sasuke-niichan. We're their Inners--see? You're already eighteen! Sasuke-ouji, you still look scary-ish like Sasu-niichan. Are we sure you're Uchiwa?"

Karin smiled--they were just kids! The tragedy they faced as kids kept them there. Sakura-hime was still turning seven everyday. And Sasuke probably traumatized his Inner so it'd always be on that night when he came home to find everyone dead. These poor kids were what was left of them--as they matured, they couldn't leave that past. They were still stuck there.

Quietly, Sakura smiled. she remembered him! Just as Itachi would visit, he would sometimes bring Sasuke to visit. And Sasu would visit Itachi, bringing Sakura most of the time.

They had grown up like best friends, and as if their families were one--which one day they would be. Since she--shockingly--had no six-cousins or more distant, she had to be arranged to marry a child from another powerful clan that would be suitable for her. That was decided long ago would be Sasuke.

"Uchiha," Sasuke corrected smiling, than kissing her on the forehead and making the little him very mad. "But it's almost the same thing. And who's this little guy?" he asked politely.

Yes, he knew how to act like a good father, and a good brother. He made her feel like she was important--like she wasn't just a little kid, or did he overdo it. Sakura was impressed he did so well.

Now he remembered her--Sakura and he were arranged to be married anyways! It was one of the reasons the two families were so close. In fact, he was supposed to go to her seventh birthday party, but Itachi said he should stay home and rest after he had a day of training with their father.

Then he remembered the next time Sakura and he met was days after the Uchiha Massacre when he was eight. She had tried to comfort him like she was totally fine, but he refused to believe her and acted cold towards her, trying to be brave.

"This is Sasuke-ouji!" Sakura-hime introduced. "He's you when you were..." She turned to Sasuke-ouji and stroked back the bangs in his face. "Ne, Sasuke-ouji? How old are you right now? Eight already, right?"

Sasuke-ouji blushed and nodded. then he faced Sasuke and put a hand protectively in front of Sakura-hime. "Even if I'm you, stay away from my girlfriend! I don't want anyone to hurt her, got it? She's the future mother of my children! My wife, got it?"

Sakura-hime blushed and hugged him from behind. "Aishiteru, Sasuke-ouji!"

Karin smiled as she watched the older two blush and Sakura shift away from Sasuke and walk away. Then she hid it as she watched Sakura walk towards her and back inside.

Apparently, Sasuke also noticed this and followed her, hoping to talk to her privately. Sakura-hime and Sasuke-ouji looked at each other, shrugged, and turned to Karin

"Karin-neechan, why are we acting so strange?" Sakura-hime asked, innocently.

"Yeah!" Sasuke-ouji added. "We love each other. Unless...Sakura doesn't love me anymore."

Karin sighed. Then she figured telling them would be practice for telling the bigger babies what was wrong. After all, they wouldn't be able to figure it out themselves--if anything, those two...she shuddered at the thought.

Those two never grew up, but they were the legal age for so many things. And they were powerful. And so many other ideas and problems ran through her head as she started.


	7. Family Matters

"So, he has two kids?" Suigetsu asked Juugo as they watched the pink-haired princess and raven-haired prince run around the place.

Juugo slapped himself on the head. "Dude, do we need to clean out your ears? The one that looks like Sasuke IS Sasuke from inside his mind. The one that looks like his girlfriend IS his girlfriend from inside her mind. And if you listened to Karin, they did something as kids, and now they're stuck like that."

Suigetsu looked over at Juugo. "Huh?"

Juugo was about to scream, but Sakura-hime ran up to him and started tugging on his arm. "Juugo-niichan, Juugo-niichan! Come outside and play on the swing with Sasuke-ouji and me!"

Smiling, Juugo got up and was dragged outside by the princess, as Sasuke-ouji walked behind them silently. Meanwhile, Sakura walked through the corridor dazed. She smiled as Sakura-hime and Sasuke-ouji stopped in front of her and bowed.

"Hello, Princess Sakura. And Prince Sasuke, too. What are you guys doing to Juugo now?" she asked, smiling.

She had always been great with kids. People may not have known, but those that get teased the most learn how to raise them the best--that was what her adoptive mother taught her. suddenly she was choking up thinking about the Haruno family. The two sweetest people ever had adopted her, and then they died to defend her. That was probably the most painful thing.

"We're going outside on the swing Sasuke-niichan made us!" Sasuke-ouji replied, smiling. At first he seemed very cold and sad, but in the last day he had become more accustomed to the elder him and Sakura. "Come with us Sakura-neechan!"

"I can't. For the past few days, I've been totally ignoring training, and I'm starting to feel like a bag of waste. Maybe next time," she told them, excusing herself. When she walked over to Karin she stopped. "Karin-san, will you train with me? My old partner isn't here, and it seems so odd to train alone."

The two children giggled and dragged Juugo out as Sasuke walked in to hear Sakura's request for a partner.

"Lee, come on!" Temari yelled as they started off. "I swear, you must be bisexual or something. I think you love your sensei more than you love me."

Lee turned from where he was talking to Gai. He had matured since the days he first met Temari. Back then he was "the Green Beast of Konoha" and idolized his sensei to the point of scaring everybody.

But now, he grew to wear any color BUT green and orange. No longer was he in love with his sensei, but instead he realized that his sensei was the father-figure he was deprived.

"Koi, that's not true! I love you more than the world," Lee told her as he said goodbye to his still-strange sensei and started walking with her back to Suna.

They refused Sai's hospitality to stay in Konoha because Lee was now the equivalence of an ANBU back in Suna, and Temari and he were wanted back for missions. Gaara was staying in Konoha for some meetings, but his older siblings and Lee were going back to Suna for any missions--or Kankuro's honeymoon.

"Really? Then why is it we named our son after him? Junko and Hiro and Gai! Junko for your father and Hiro for my mother--where does Gai come from? Your sensei!" she argued. They had been married for three years, and in those three years they had two male twins and a young daughter.

"Hey, can you guys shut up?" Kankuro yelled. "Crow and I are going to speed things up if we can...Temari's what's with the Person Pendant?" Kankuro asked as he looked at the circular pendant made of something similar to smooth seashells. "What does that color mean?"

It was bright silver tinged with blue--a spectacular bluish silver, but they didn't know why.

"I'll train with you," Sasuke offered.

"No. Karin-san?" Sakura asked again. Ever since yesterday with Sasuke, she didn't want to be alone with him. He was an ass.

"Sakura, have you already forgotten the deal we made?" Sasuke asked her, reprimanding her like she was a child caught with sweets past bedtime. They came up with things she could and couldn't, must and mustn't do while she was with them, and training was listed.

"Oh, I remember," she replied heatedly, hiding the blush as she remembered everything they put on the lists. "But, see, I just don't want to acknowledge it."

Karin sighed. "Sorry. I'm still working on your birthday party. Maybe we can train some other day."

Sakura frowned. Did she really want to be with Sasuke? While they had both learned training, he probably knew all he had to do was bat his eyes and he could win any fight. "Fuck! Fine then; let's go Uke. You better hope Orochimaru trained you pretty damn well, or you're gonna die."

Without betraying his true feelings, he smirked. "That was on the list as a 'No can do.' But you better hope that you're better than me now, or you might just end up wishing you were dead."

"Hey, Sasuke-ouji? What do you think this is for?" Sakura-hime asked, looking at a paper she found.

_The Rules of Training10. Sasuke cannot kill Sakura.9. Sakura cannot kill Sasuke.8. Sakura must train with Sasuke unless given permission not to or asked by another to train.7. Sasuke must train with Sakura whenever Sakura asks to train.6. They may use kekkei genkai against one another.5. They cannot flirt, fake injury, play dead, or strike lethally to win.4. One must win.3. Sakura cannot call Sasuke a cheater.2. Sasuke cannot call Sakura a cheater._

"What's written next to number one?" Sasuke-ouji asked as he read them aloud.

Juugo looked and almost choked on it. "This must be Sasuke's paper."

_1. Whoever wins can demand of the other for the entire day. See list of Demand Can and Can't Rules_

_Demand Sakura spend the rest of the day alone with me. Demand as ideas cme after that. And hopefully that's not the only thing that comes._

"Hey, here's another behind it!" Sakura-hime squealed as she flipped it over. "This one's funny!"Juugo sighed as he read it. "Yep; this one's Sakura's."

_**Demand the Uchiha dream on and keep servicing himself, because I'm not going to anytime in the next few years. Also, demand he spend the day away from me while I'm totally alone and training on my own. Even Naruto was a better partner. Maybe race around naked screaming "I'm Orochimaru's uke!" too. Bastard.**_

"Dude, why do we hate each other so much?" Sasuke-ouji asked Juugo as he read it.

"Neechan said she doesn't hate Niichan, and Niichan said he doesn't hate Neechan. They just won't admit that to each other," Sakura-hime replied.

Juugo chuckled as he and his Inner started to converse. _well, we can help them with that._


	8. Shannaro Lives

"That's so unfair!" Sasuke's complained, folding his arms over his chest.

Sakura just smirked as she walked next to him, barely panting. "Says you. Now you know what it feels like for me whenever you use that Sharingan on me back as kids. It's hell, isn't it?"

He had to agree. "But you could've used at least ONE move that wasn't part of your kekkei genkai! That wasn't fair--Sharingan can't do kekkei genkai!"

The kunoichi smiled. "I know! Why else do you think I made you write in the rules that we could use kekkei genkai? I'm really not an idiot. Now, how would you like to know what you'll be demanded to do today?"

When she turned she saw him on the ground like he was praying. "Thank all the kami-sama I know and those I don't for making a rule that she couldn't kill me!" he said aloud. "Or castrate me."

"But, I can include other people in your torture, though," she shot, deciding her earlier plans wouldn't be good enough now. She had won the training, and now she could demand whatever she wanted from Sasuke for the day. "And I have a lot to demand of you."

He gulped. _Shit, I'm screwed_, he thought. Then his eyes came to her body as they traveled from her feet up, and he couldn't move them any higher. At some point when they had been training, he had ripped her shirt and he could see her chest wrappings now. And right behind them...

"If you want to be able to ever revive the Uchiha clan, I suggest you take your eyes away from the spot their staring at. Don't think I don't know what your looking at, Uke," Sakura warned, glaring at him.

_Well, maybe she's including herself_, Sasuke thought as he went the rest of the way up to her eyes, and then standing up. He wasn't the alone in getting up. _Shit. If she sees that, I might as well kiss the clan buh-bye._

"All right. Let's see...First demand is to STOP THINKING DIRTY THOUGHTS ABOUT ME ALREADY!" she yelled, making Suigetsu turn and look at them. He was still in the hall trying to find a place to put the presents when they got them for Sakura-hime.

"Okay..." he started and trailed off. "Someone must be a little hentai in this place. Oh, yeah! Sasuke, I have something I need to tell you! Your...girlfriend...can listen too if she wants." _Does a girlfriend really say that? _Suigetsu asked himself.

"I'm not his girlfriend," Sakura replied, walking over to Suigetsu. "But what's up?"

Sasuke walked over too and nodded for Suigetsu to continue. The man had nothing to say to Sasuke unless it had to do with something serious about battles, tactics, security--boring stuff no one else had the patience for.

Karin and Juugo...Well, Karin acted mature, but Juugo and he were like the Dobe and he--they goofed off to much.

"Word just came that the Akatsuki are on the move. They're looking for Sakura. Also, your friend and that boy are looking for you and Sakura as well. They seem to be on their way here. But one of them brought a fox with them--color of fire with white paws," Suigetsu started.

Gasping, Sakura clapped her hands. "Sai-niichan and Riku-kistune!" she squealed. When she saw the two look at her like she was crazy, she sighed. "Sasuke, you remember my cousin Sai, right? He was the one that came with us to retrieve you from Orochimaru all those years ago. He's my cousin!"

Inwardly, Sasuke sighed. When he saw them, he had assumed they were in love and she replaced him. No way could a cousin ever do that--especially when Sasuke was the one she was engaged to marry. They still hadn't figured out what to do with that, though."Well," she continued, turning around and putting her pointer up. "Sai and I moved in together so we wouldn't be so lonely, and so Sai could watch me since Gaara-niichan wanted to do that, and then he'd have to stop being the Kazekage, and no way could I do that to him."

Now he was up straight and sucked in his breath. She was seeing the Kazekage?

"You do know the Sand Siblings are my cousins, right?" she asked, turning around again with her head cocked to the side. When she saw him nod, she turned and continued.

Letting out a sigh of relief, he wondered who else he would know that was her cousin. Maybe she should stop scaring him into thinking he was losing her.

"Anyways, so we decided we needed something else so we wouldn't be lonely when one of us was on a mission--we're both ANBU now, and I'm a medic too! Isn't that cool?"

"The coolest," Suigetsu answered sarcastically.

Sakura ignored him. "So, we went to this place in Suna when I had to go to see Temari-neechan for her baby girl's birth. Sai, Naruto and Hinata came, and we saw a whole litter of kawaii kitsune! It was so funny to see Naruto talking with them like he was one of them--he isn't, he's just...I guess he was talking for the kyuubi.

"But...So Naruto didn't want one, so Sai and I decided to buy four. We only kept one, though. We named her Riku and we gave the others to Hinata. The Kyuubi likes having them around...Not so sure about Naruto's take on them, but that's his thing. Sai was abducted as a kid, and ROOT tried to abduct him again. But Riku must be some kind of Person Detector, because we went to exactly where he was because of her."

Suigetsu sighed. "Great. Anyways, it seems like they'll be here soon. maybe they'll make it for your birthday. Also, I heard something about Tsunade wanting them to meet up with some people from the Akatsuki that were defecting."

Maybe it was too much to hope, but Sakura hoped it was Itachi and Kabuto--she didn't know who the third could be, but she wouldn't care. Then she started wondering where her brother was.

"Shannaro, wasn't killed," Seigatsu told them suddenly, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"What?" Sasuke and Sakura asked at once.

"Intelligence said that she escaped in just enough time be released into her own body and avoid the blow. Apparently, there was enough time in between though that neither Sakura or Shannaro were harmed. I say, we find Shannaro and finish her off--she's more danger than anyone else we can and will ever face."

Sakura nodded, then asked a question that was bugging her the whole time. "How do you know all of this?"

But Sasuke had a better question. "Where is everybody? Where are Sakura-hime and Sasuke-ouji?"


	9. Lost

"Dude, we're lost," Karin said to Juugo as they walked back with Sakura-hime and Sasuke-ouji. "How did we get this lost?"

Juugo had no answer. They had merely went out to play with the kiddies on the swings, and somehow got lost on their way back inside. He had no clue where they were, and they couldn't really be that far away from everyone.

Suddenly, they saw Sasuke running down the hall without any clothes on. He was muttering something ender his breath, but they couldn't hear it. For the next few minutes, they stood there frozen until he came back down the hall yelling angrily.

"I, Uchiha Sasuke, am Orochimaru's uke. I had gay sex with him every night while Juugo and Suigetsu watched me and jacked off on their own."

Again, they stood frozen and silent, until Karin laughed. "Juugo-san, I feel sorry for you being caught in the cross-fire."

"Sakura won the training match then," Juugo muttered, blushing furiously.

"Yep, and now I'm getting my just reward," the devil herself replied, laughing at Sasuke. She didn't think she'd ever win, but she did. Thank god, or she'd have some big problems right now. "Hey, Karin-san, Juugo-san, Prince Sasuke, Princess Sakura. What's up?"

"We got ourselves lost," Sakura-hime replied, smiling brightly. "Isn't it so cool? We live on the base, and we still got ourselves lost! Where are we?"

Sakura sighed. "Not sure myself. I'm just following Sasuke through every hallway to make sure he yells it loud enough. The idiot still has a lot of halls to do. And some more evil demands."

The glint in her eye looked so evil they were all scared for Sasuke.

"Just don't go too far with all that," Juugo warned her, walking away with the kids. Being too hard on him would ruin his plan to get them together. He needed them both mature and respectful still on her birthday.

Yeah, like those two could ever be.

Suddenly Sakura left them to go watch Sasuke and laugh at him some more. He was being really funny with all of this. He could just simple run through the halls once and say it happily, but he refuse, so she had to make him go do it again and again after that if he was "up" when she saw him.

Poor guy had been through the place twice because of that second rule.

"Sakura-hime?" Sasuke-ouji asked. "Does that seem fun for you?"

Blushing, she said no. She thought it was funny, but she'd never want to do it. Maybe when she was older--like Sakura! Only that'd mean she has to be brought to age again, and Sakura didn't seem to be doing that so well.

Or at all.

"Well, what if I did that and yelled that I love you?" Sasuke-ouji offered, starting to strip.

Then he took off at breakneck speeds down the hall, yelling proudly at the top of her lungs like the dobe, "I love Sakura-hime! One day she and I will be married and she will bare my children! I love her more than anything else!"

Juugo and Karin looked at each before laughing hysterically at the turn of events.

"Sai, we're lost!" Naruto complained, trudging on. "And I haven't had ramen in days now! When are we gonna get there?"

Sai was getting more and more tired by the hour. He came home for half an hour before going to Tsunade's, then for five more hours before being woken up by Naruto and learning he was put on a mission to bring Sasuke and Sakura back. It was tiresome and he had no reserves left.

"Naruto, we aren't lost. This is a straight path, all the way to Otogakure! If we get stuck, or we don't meet the defecting Akastuki, then we can just go all the way to Oto and see if she's found. Does that make you happy? Besides, you were eating ramen when we stopped the last time!"

"Riii, riii," Riku purred in agreement.

He never understood why Sakura had named the thing Riku, but the more he spent time with it he believed it was for the purr. Like she was starting to sound out her name. It was kind of cute, actually.

"Hey, stop ganging up on me!" Naruto complained, yelling at the kitsune.

Before Sai slapped himself at the stupidity Naruto was emanating for assuming he could understand the thing, and then he remembered there was the kyuubi inside him and he did know what the little fox was saying--just why Sakura gave him and Hinata three foxes of their own.

Naruto and foxes still didn't get along very well, by the Akatsuki's opinion. The three that were defecting popped out of the bushes and kneeled.

"Rii, rii!" the kitsune purred as she ran to the one in the middle. It knocked off the man's cape as she lunged into his arms to be caught, and the man laughed.

"Hey! You must be Rii-chan that the old man was telling us about!" the guy gushed, cuddling her and twirling his finger by her head as she batted with her paws at it. "You're such a kawaii little kitsune!"

Naruto thought he recognized the face and started to make assumptions. "Hey, I know you! You're Sasuke's brother! The hell did you kill everybody for? They did nothing to you--nothing!"

The man looked up, surprised. Onyx hair, yes; red eyes, no--they were onyx as well; big scars on his cheeks, also a no. Oops. Instead, Sai stood up stiff as the man approached him. "Well, I should have known. Next to Sasuke, the only two people she'd ever trust came to get her. How fitting. It's been years, Sai. It's nice to finally see you again."

"It's nice to see you again too...Sasu-niichan," Sai greeted formally. He extended his hand for a handshake, but instead got a hug. "The other two I presume are Kabuto and Itachi?"

The other two took their hoods off and smiled with an arm around each other and the other forming a V with their fingers.

Sai sighed. This was one long week. "I should have just stayed with ROOT," he muttered to himself.

"Are you happy now?" Sasuke asked, gritting his teeth from the cold.

"Not really," Sakura replied. "You can put your clothes back on now though. Just get ready for my next demand."

Sasuke obliged and came back to where she was. He no longer wore the baggy pants and purple rope, or the white opened-shirt. Instead he wore the black outfit he had once worn while he was with Team Seven.

But just as he stood in front of Sakura, Sasuke-ouji ran out screaming about his love for Sakura-hime. He plowed into them and made them fall so that Sakura was on top of Sasuke in a very compromising position. But as Juugo and Karin ran after them, they realized it wasn't the worst part.

"Karin-neechan, Jugo-niichan? Are Sakura-neechan and Sasuke-niichan doing what I think they're doing?" Sakura-hime asked.

"Yeah," Juugo replied.

"They're kissing," Karin added, shocked.


	10. Birthday Sorrow

"When are we going to get there?" Naruto complained again, treading the path to Otogakure. Days had passed since they had started the journey and he wasn't into it anymore. He just wanted to go back home and be with Hinata again.

"Dobe!" Sai muttered tiredly. The idiot had no reason to be complaining.

Naruto had been sleeping like a baby at the last stop and no one could wake him up for his watch-duty. He had to take the watch-duty for him and he was getting even more tired.

"Let's try this," Sasu intervened, moving Naruto to the side of the road and crouching down next to him.

Sai stopped and turned to watch his cousin with the kyuubi, in case he tried something. After all, he was Akatsuki now. He might try and take the kyuubi from Naruto.

Sasu ignored his younger cousin's obvious mistrust in him, and motioned for his other cousin and best friend to stop as well. The Rasuto couldn't say he blamed Sai much--Sasu vowed to avenge the clan against the Akatsuki, and yet there he was working with them for years.

He felt like a traitor in his own eyes.

"All right. You see this path we're traveling on?" He looked to Naruto and saw him nodding. "This goes straight into Oto. When we get to the end of this path, we'll get there. If it helps, look to the end and try to see the tops of the Oto village's houses. Okay?"

"Yeah! Thanks, Sasu!" Naruto replied, smiling. "You're really nice! Sakura must really like having you for a brother!"

Turning and getting back on the path, Sasu made sure to hide the pain he felt from the words. "I guess. But I don't think so anymore. Maybe back when she still believed in happily ever after."

Naruro didn't get it. "She believed in that until she was about sixteen. Why?"

Sai groaned. Only a few more days with these idiots.

"Hey, Sasuke! Come on, we're going to train," Sakura ordered, coming up to Sasuke with Sasuke-ouji and Sakura-hime.

They tried to separate the two, but they never split up. Sasuke once said that they should just be joined at the hip for all their time together.

Karin looked up from where she was placing the presents. What did the girl just say? Was she serious about training on her birthday? Then she thought...Sakura's birthday was today. The day that had changed her world--the day her Inner was stuck at.

Maybe she was being serious.

"No. You have permission to train alone," Sasuke replied, reverting his attention back to the young ones.

Sakura smiled wickedly. Perfect! She left and started to walk towards the gate. Right next to the gate was a grassy hill with trees and a bench. She sat down and started to watch the trees. Cherry Blossom trees swirled the blooming petals around her and she thought.

"Today's the day, huh? Eleven years ago to the day," Sakura said aloud, looking to the sky. "Kaasan, Tousan, everyone? You know I love you, but I still don't want to be alone. Why did you do it? Why did you sacrifice yourselves for me?"

Sasuke started to feel bad. Sakura was alone training on her birthday--he acted harshly, and he should go and apologize.

Right after the cake.

"Happy birthday!" Sasuke said to Sakura-hime as she blew out the candles. But then she looked sullen and distant. "Hey, are you okay?" he asked, bending over to check her temperature and be at eye level.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she replied politely, but still distantly. "Just...I don't feel very good today. Like something's happening. Almost...I feel like I should be sad. As if I lost somebody really important to me today." she turned to Sasuke's face. "Did Sasu-niichan die? Please tell me he didn't die today!"

Sasuke shook his head. "No, he isn't dead. I saw him just the other day. He's fine."

Karin closed her eyes. The most painful thing to ever have to say. God, why did the world hate this girl?

"Sakura-hime," she started. "Sasu didn't die," she told her, walking over to her. "I think you should know though...On your seventh birthday--on the dot of your birthday--your entire clan was annihilated. There were only a few survivors, and some of the clan members that died had sacrificed themselves for you. that's why you feel so bad today--because today it all happened, and you feel responsible for it."

Sasuke-ouji gasped, then hugged Sakura-hime. "It's okay. We can get through this together. It's not your fault. It's not."

Shit. Now Sasuke thought he really had to see Sakura, and check on if she was okay. If even the cheery little her was sad, he could just imagine how she felt.

"You shouldn't have done it," she continued. "I never deserved to be the one who lived. Looking back, I've always been so selfish--even with the Haruno family. If you're watching me, you'll know that. I just..."

Sasuke cam out and heard her. She was selfish? He remembered she never forgot a friends' birthdays or stood up for them. She cut her hair for kami-sama! She cut it so that she could escape and help him and Naruto and Lee! She loved that hair, and she cut it for others. And yet, she thought she was selfish?

"Sakura?" he asked, coming across the place and sitting next to her. "What's wrong?"

She looked over at him and sighed. "You don't want to know. Go away, Uchiha. I need a day alone, okay?"

He sighed and hugged her, shocking her. At first she stiffened, but he only pulled her closer. Eventually, she relaxed into him and he looked her in the eye. "Please? I really do want to know. What happened?"


	11. Sakura's Side

Sasuke did something he thought he'd never do.

He sat and listened--actually LISTENED--to what the pink-haired kunoichi was saying. Surprisingly, he realized he she knew a lot more than he thought she'd ever know.

"My family...had treated me like a princess," she started. She had to start with the beginning, or the end would sound selfless in her mind. And she knew she was a lot more selfish than people treated her. "You know, every little girl is a princess in their own respect. That horse and gallop."

He understood. Sort of. "Like the reason your Inner calls herself a princess?"

"Exactly," she replied. "And every year since I can...could...remember, my family would send me out in the morning all through Suna with my brother, and I'd come home to a princess birthday party. It was fun...to always expect the same thing and know nothing will ever change..."

"You didn't like it?" Sasuke concluded. It was only an assumption, but with the way she acted--distant, misplaced, sad, hurt--she didn't seem to.

She shook her head vigorously. "No, I loved it! Don't get me wrong...I actually was a princess." Sakura looked over at the boy, sitting there with a shocked and doubtful look on his face. "You don't believe me, do you? Well, I suppose it's kind of creepy to know you were engaged as a child to a princess."

Yeah, he'd admit that one. But a real princess? Princesses were for fairy tales. He wouldn't know any in the real world. There were none in the real world. The closest one he could think of was a clan head like--

She turned back away when she saw him thinking. "You remember Hinata Hyuuga, right? The head of the Hyuuga clan?...Was head," she amended.

Through her peripheral vision she saw his head snap back to attention.

"Yeah, she and Naruto were married, and Hiashi-sama agreed to it. As a result, however, she'd no longer be a Hyuuga. Neji pointed out the fact that all girls that marry out of the family will no longer be Hyuuga, and after Naruto, Sai and I gave a little...or a lot...of force, he finally agreed that the clan was flawed and that it could change."

Sasuke smirked and closed his eyes, tilting his head back. "So, who's the new head? Neji I suppose? And who is he with?"

"Neji and TenTen. They got married last year...I'm actually supposed to be back in Konoha giving birth to the baby in six months," she answered, looking back up to the clear blue sky.

"So, did you guys ever find out what her clan name was?" he asked. That had always made him very curious. How do you really not know a friend's clan name?

Grimacing she nodded. "Sadly for her...yes. She's been trying to hide it for years and I feel sorry for her. But, I can certainly see why and I can totally respect her for not wanting to be known by it."

Now the Uchiha was interested. He looked at Sakura and froze. She looked so pretty framed against the trees and peaceful. Since she got there, she had been wearing some of Karin's clothes because she didn't bring her own.

The shirt was blue royal blue with thin straps that fit to her tight and showed her curves. the shorts were similar to the ones she normally wore under her training outfit, but shorter.

As he thought about it, they were much shorter. He cleared his thought and then started to speak. "And the clan name is...?"

"Maito," she whispered. "Gai Maito is her father. I think everyone--especially Neji and she--thank all the kami-sama that she didn't end up like him. Wouldn't that be so scary? The poor girl was born into a really bad family."

"We're getting off topic," he reminded her.

"Right. Hinata was the second closest thing to a princess anywhere else in the countries. I was known as the Desert Princess because I'm from Suna and just like Gaara-niichan I can control sand. But, I am a real princess."

Her face grew cloudy. Today was a sober day, and remember even how she used to act made her sad. "But...I let the title get to my head. I acted selfish and asked people to do things I had no right to ask them to do. Ask them to play with me, ask them to train with me, ask them to show me jutsu..."

That's strange. Sasuke remembered doing that as a kid too. That was because that's what kids do! She was overreacting.

"On my sixth birthday, everything was perfect. I got everything I asked for, everyone came to my party, and my ego went too high. That's the year that I found I would be marrying you, actually.

"During the next half-year, my seventh birthday was already starting to be planned out. But, Sai and I got in a fight, and he ran off. And then Sasu-niichan told me while I was training with Kabuto-niichan's brother that Sai had disappeared. I had to go all-out 'Spoiled Princess' and demand that they do an immediate search-and-rescue for him, because I let him get abducted."

That was actually what he would do too. So, that was spoiled?

"Then, I asked Gaara's parents if they were coming to my party, and they had planned a family vacation that whole week and they couldn't come. I threw a temper tantrum because they had PROMISED that they'd come.

"So, everyone was there, but them. And I was...not happy."

"What kid isn't?" he asked.

That was not the right thing to say. She started to walk off, and he had to run after her. But even then, she wouldn't stop and finish what she was saying.

Juugo snuck out to spy on them and put his plan in motion, but he liked what Sasuke decided to do much better anyways.

"Hey! HEY! Sakura, don't be like that!" he complained. "Come on! Turn around and finish talking to me!" But she refused to turn around. "Hey! Finish what you started Sakura! I'm trying to talk to you--come on!"

But she refused. So, he decided to do what he thought was the only thing he could do.

He tackled into her and grabbed her wrists, pinning them above her head. She started thrashing, and he pushed his lower body further on her, hoping it'd stop her, or at least keep her from kicking him. Then he made her look him straight in the eye.

"I can talk to you like a human being, or I can talk to you like this. Take your pick."


	12. That figures

"Let go of me!" Sakura demanded, trying futilely to get Sasuke up off of her. "If I don't want to talk to you, I don't have to. And you never have to tackle me, either."

Sasuke groaned. This was one bugging day. "What if I like tackling you? It's not a sin to. Besides, I like how you feel under me."

Sakura rolled her eyes and brought her head up. The motion created a powerful enough head-butt that Sasuke reeled back to coddle his head. In that time, Sakura used her arms to push him off of her and go back to the bench she had been sitting on.

As she sat there, Sasuke moaned at the pain. Her chakra control was really, really good--that had to have chakra in it. It hurt too damn bad!

The kunoichi smirked, rivaling the Uchiha's famous one. "I'm going to pretend you never said that, okay? And I don't want to keep talking to you--you're like everyone else! You want to explain away my selfishness for me being a normal kid."

Rubbing his head, Sasuke walked over to her and sat down. "But by the sounds of it, you were just being a kid. You wanted to save your cousin--that's the only thing that I heard that wasn't childish."

"Yeah..." Sakura replied, her face shadowing as she looked down to the ground. She was a screw-up. A jerk. Selfish and spoiled. The Uchiha just admitted it himself.

But she was surprised when the Uchiha took her chin and took her face up, giving her a kiss and making her look him in the eye. He could see the shock in her face and smiled. Actually smiled at her the way he smiled at Sakura-hime.

"Because that's more mature than even the hokage could do. You're a great person, Sakura. You just don't see it the way I do. The way everyone does."

"You don't see me as a great person. You see me as weak," she shot.

"Yeah? Well then that'd make me weaker than you since you beat me!" he teased, kissing her again. "Those bonds Orochimaru placed on you made you weaker than you are. As a child, I remember thinking you were the most amazing person every. And even now, I still see you as..."

Now this was interesting. "Sa-Sas-Sasuke-kun?" she asked, looking up in his face.

That's when he did it. He wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her harder than he'd ever kissed a girl before. He rolled his tongue across her lip, and as she protested he took the opportunity of her opened mouth and let his tongue explore.

When he came up for air, he breathed on her neck. "I love you, Sakura. I've always loved you and I always will. When Orochimaru took away your memories, I felt like he took me away from you, because you couldn't remember me. All those years I was cold and distant, because it was like you were a different person."

She smiled and kissed him. "Well, if we're making confessions, I should make mine, too. I never stopped loving you after you left Konoha. I may have acted like a fangirl, but I always knew I was really in love with you, and that I knew we were meant to be together. I just didn't know why."

He smiled and kissed her again.

"Oh, and I kind of broke a vase in your room after you left--the one with that plant in it. It got all over that picture of team Seven. Sorry."

He smiled mischievously. "Well then, you owe me. and I have just the way you can do it."

Juugo had been waiting in the bushes bored and playing with a random yuki yanagi he found, swinging the cluster of small, pure white flowers around.

"The idiot! He tackles her and he can't even think of something good to do with her like that," he muttered to himself. "That's what we have to teach him--even the little dude knows what to do with the ladies!"

Then he looked back over and left the yuki yanagi to the wind. Apparently he did find something good, because now they were back on the bench and heavily making out!

"Hell yeah! Now that's what I'm talking about!" Juugo said aloud, mindful of how his voice would travel.

"Karin-neechan?" Sakura asked, opening a gift from Sasuke-ouji. "Where did Sasuke-niichan and Sakura-neechan go? And where did Jugo-niichan go, too? He's been acting weird all day!"

Sasuke-ouji sighed. Because he and Sakura-hime were young, they needed to be baby-sat at night too. And while Karin and Sakura-hime bunked, he and Juugo had to sleep in the same room. It was annoying him to no end how the guy only though and dreamed of getting the elder he and Sakura together.

But, he only replied, "Maybe he went to the bathroom and got lost again."

Karin and Sakura-hime smiled while Suigetsu looked at them confused. Then he shrugged. He didn't even know why he came to the party today.

"Hey, are you guys okay?" Naruto asked, looking back at the Akatsuki. He had to admit, even Sai seemed a little down today. maybe something bad happened. "Did I do something wrong again?" he asked.

Sasu sighed. "No, Naruto-san. You didn't do anything." he looked over at Kabuto. "So, another year, huh? I wonder how Sakura-hime's taking it?" He looked to the sky and seemed distant. "Eleven years now..."

Sai sighed at his cousin. "Sakura doesn't go by Sakura-hime anymore. she grew out of it this day, eleven years ago, actually. And she's probably the same as she is every year."

Then Naruto got it. "No way! Today's Sakura's birthday! Man, we have to find her--she finally turns eighteen! She hasn't celebrated a birthday since she was...nine she ran away from me, so no...She sort of celebrated it when she was twelve!" he replied, smiling as he picked up the pace.

Itachi looked at his friend. "Sasu, do you suppose the engagement is still valid now that the families are dead? Or do you think my sister has married..." he trailed off.

"Dude, Sakura hasn't even dated a guy--she's always in training," Sai replied. "She and Naruto are like brother and sister--twins to the last. They know what one is thinking, and the next step they'll take. She's still in love with Sasuke, and she trains to try to get rid of the feeling. She can't, though. the engagement is still valid on her side."

"It's up to your brother then if it's still valid," Kabuto replied as they picked up the pace to catch up to the kyuubi vessel barreling ahead. "And that's only fifty-fifty."

Itachi cracked his knuckles and Sai looked at Kabuto. Both boys looked sacred as they saw a flash of emotion in Itachi's eyes. "Oh, he will. If he doesn't, I'll make him fall back in love with her."

Sasu looked at Itachi and shook his head, smiling. "Okay. We have a new holiday today. Don't Piss Off Itachi Day. Damn weasel doesn't do well with people threatening his...I lost the thought."

Sai sighed. "ROOT, come take me away," he quietly pleaded, hoping for some sanity to remain. Maybe he'd be better off with the Sand Siblings.

Sasu and Itachi stuck their tongues out at each other and had a running contest to see who could catch up to Naruto first. Of course, like Sasuke and Naruto they couldn't just end it there.

"Kami! You guys are worse than teme and me!" Naruto yelled as they plowed past him, leaving only a giant trail of dust behind them as they shot towards Oto. "And you're going to waste your chakra! hey! People, please!"

Kabuto sighed as he and Sai came to Naruto's side. "Don't worry. As Rasuto, you're chakra is immense at birth. The chakra of the Uchiha clan is equal to it, though not so easily controlled. Only Sakura, however, has bottomless chakra and the most precise, perfect control of the entire clan."

Naruto hit his head and muttered, "Figures. Sakura's the best at everything."


	13. All in the Family

"Uh oh," Sakura-hime gasped, watching strange-looking men run into the lair. It was two older men with black capes with three red blotches on them. "Sasuke-ouji, are those cloudy-thingies?" she asked.

He shrugged, immediately hating both of them. "Don't either of you two dare come near my fucking wife!"

At this, even the racing Sasu and Itachi froze and then turned to face Sasuke-ouji. "Um...Sasuke? Where did you learn language like that?" Itachi asked.

Then Sasu jumped in. "Whoa! Little Dude! How did my future-brother get so small again? Did we go back in time or something?" Then he saw Sakura-hime. "Saku-hime! Saku-hime's a baby too! This is so cool! Wait a minute...They're kiddies! Oh my gosh this is cool!"

Sakura and Sasuke heard the commotion and stopped kissing to run inside. When they saw their brother's there, Sasuke was first mad, and Sakura was embarrassed her brother acted like he was no better than Naruto.

"I learned 'fucking' from Sakura-neechan! She says a lot of cool words. Fuck, fucking, shit," he started to list.

Sakura-hime squealed. "Itachi-niichan! Sasu-niichan! I thought Sasu-niichan left me!"

She ran up to them and hugged them both around their knees--she was so tiny next to them she barely made it to their waists! But then she held Sasu closer to her and started crying.

"I'm sorry! Gomen! Gomenasai! Sumimasai! Ashikarazu! Sumimasen!" she trailed off, crying. "I don't know what I did to make you leave, but I'm sorry I couldn't make you stay!"

That hit a nerve in Sakura. The night Sasu left was like the night Sasuke left.

--Flashback--

_"Sasu-niichan!" Sakura screamed, running through the clan-compound t where her brother was leaving. She was dirty, beat-up, and exhausted with her traditional blue and gold training outfit torn and the black under-shorts cut shorter than she liked--from what, she wasn't sure, but she knew it was a fight._

_"Saku," Sasu replied, turning around as Sakura hugged him. "Go back to bed, okay? You shouldn't be up so late. It's a big day--you finally turned seven!"_

_"Sasu-niichan, don't leave me! Please! I love you!" she cried, hugging him. "If you leave, take me with you!"_

_Sasu didn't even look at her as he pushed her away, walking towards the gates leading to Suna. "Good night, Sakura."_

_She was getting desperate._

_She was a kid, damn it! He said he loved her, but he wouldn't even stay with her when she needed someone the most! He was walking out of a kid's life, and she had no clue what the impact of it would be. All she knew was if she left she'd have no body and be nobody._

_"If you go, I'll scream," she threatened._

_Suddenly his image disappeared and she felt him behind her. She cried in relief that he was still there._

_"Sakura...arigatou," he told her, knocking her out._

_"Sasu-niichan," she sobbed, blacking out._

_"Sakura-hime," he whispered, "I love you. I'll see you someday soon, baby."_

--End Flashback--

"Sakura-hime," he cooed, hugging her and rocking her. "This isn't you, is it? This is your Inner, right? Where's my real sister? Please."

"Right here," Sakura answered, walking up to him. She had a look that'd kill on.

"Saku--"

Before he could even finish, she slapped him. Then she pounded his chest with tears flowing.

Not long after it started, Sai, Naruto and Kabuto arrived with Riku. "Riii, riii, rii!" the thing purred. "Rii rii?" She cocked her head as she saw Sakura hitting Sasu and Sasu tried to control her.

"You bastard! How can you even think of coming back to me--in Akatsuki attire, too! I hate you! I pleaded, I begged you not to leave me! But all you did was knock me out and say 'arigatou' like I was doing you a favor! Damn it, you bastard I hate you! I asked you to take me--if nothing else, take me with you!" she screamed through sobs.

"Sa...Sakura," Sasuke whispered, feeling the pain in his chest. He did the same thing. The pain she felt all those years ago he had inflicted again just a few years after it. Thinking back, he believed it might have even been her birthday as well.

"You jerk! You couldn't even stay--all that time until Shannaro was forced inside me, I wondered who I really was and if I really was meant to be the Rasuto no Tatsujin or I was just the weakest of the Last! I hate you!"

Eventually, Sasu calmed her down, rocking her back and forth in a hug as she cried.

"I hate you, I hate you," she cried.

"I know, I know," he replied, hugging her tighter. "I'm sorry. You think it's your fault, don't you?" He felt her nod her head in agreement. "Imouto, it wasn't. You were a perfect angel and I had to go or I'd be the reason an angel fell from heaven. If you came with me, Orochimaru would have destroyed you, just like he killed poor Sarutobi!"

Sai came up to her and hugged her too. "It's okay. Everything is going to be okay now, Sakura. If he even threatens to hurt you, I will personally kill him."

She gasped and turned around, aware of the world around her. "Sai-niichan? Riku-kitsune! Naruto-kun! Hey!" she greeted, smiling as she picked up Riku and hugged her tightly.

"Riiiiiiiii," she purred, nuzzling her owner's arm.

"Whoa! No way are you going to do that! Sakura, Riku's trying to get on your good-side. She chewed up your favorite shirt while you were away training!" Naruto told her, pointing at the kitsune.

"Riku," Sakura scolded, putting her down. "Bad Riku!"

Kabuto cleared his throat. "I love that I'm not being killed on this family reunion, but I'm mad I'm not getting paid any attention."

Sakura smiled. "Hello to you, too, Kabuto-niichan!"

He smiled as he kissed her forehead. "So did that day traumatize you?" he asked.

Her face went blank. Then Karin noticed Kabuto there. "Kabuto-san!" she greeted, running up to him and stopping right before him. "Daijobou? Anou...I missed you," she murmured, hugging him.

Sasuke's jaw dropped. This was a parallel universe! Then he paid attention to Itachi. "So, are you prepared to die now, family-murderer?" he asked, gritting his teeth. "You'll pay for killing my family!"

But before he could rush his brother, Sakura quickly came to his side and knocked Sasuke hard on his head. "NO ONE is going to murder ANYONE today! This is my birthday for fuck's sake!"

Itachi, Sasu, and Sasuke all looked at her. "No wonder why Mini-me has a bad-mouth now!" he complained. "Stop swearing!"

"When did you learn how to swear anyways?" Sasu demanded.

"Tsunade," she answered simply.

Sai groaned. Tsunade taught her too many things that he wouldn't like her to ever do anything about, or know about.

Itachi's eye twitched. "The gambling, drunk, HOKAGE Tsunade?" he demanded, screaming.

Sakura squealed again and ran to hug Itachi. "Itachi-niichan! I can't believe it! You fought back the Demon Inner! You're you again. How are you? The last time I saw you and had a normal conversation with you was my six Christmas, wasn't it?"

He smiled as he hugged her, making Sasuke jealous. "Thank your brother for making me come back. The last time I saw you was your seventh Christmas I think. Month-old was one, one was two...yes. I missed you, Imouto. Next time we all stick together, okay?"

"Don't tell me! You were the one that wasn't strong enough!" she protested.

Jugo walked in, swaggering. "Why are there so many people here?" he asked aloud. "I must have had too much to drink. whoa! You're that guy Karin talks about!"

Suddenly, Sakura turned around to see Karin when she noticed something. "Are they what I think they are?" she questioned, shocked.

Sasuke nodded daftly. "They're making out!" he replied.

"Bad images, bad images," she sang in a mantra.

Then Itachi tapped Sasuke. When he turned, he was engulfed in a hug. "Sasuke, I just want you to know. I'm sorry for what I said. I'm sorry Mom and Dad are dead. I'm flat-out sorry."

Sasuke stiffened. "That's why you killed them. Just to say your sorry!" he spat.

Sakura sighed as she hit him again. "Sasuke, he didn't kill Mikoto-kaasan and Fugaku-tousan!" she told him.

"He killed them and he killed Shisui! I can't just listen to him now!" he protested.

"Shisui died in an accident and everyone blamed Itachi-niichan. I was there!"

"What?" Sasuke asked shocked.

"He was watching me for the week because Sasu-niichan was on a mission and Kaasan and Touasan didn't want me...under foot. So I was there with them when he died--Shisui died when the water got too high and he couldn't swim anymore. I was more to blame because I was making Itachi watch me when it happened."

Sasuke's eyes widened. Sakura was on the verge of tears again, so he hugged her to comfort her. He rubbed his hand on her back as if he could coax her breathing to be more normal again."Mikoto-kaasan and fugaku-tousan were killed by Orochimaru. When Itachi-niichan got home, he lost it and his Demon Inner took over. I told you that there are two, right? This one is the one that makes a person evil--I warned him!"

"You did, and I didn't listen," he agreed, coming up to Sasuke and her, putting a hand on his brother's shoulder. "He took over and made me believe I really did kill my parents. When I saw you"--he motioned to Sasuke--"my Demon Inner was in control. Only about two years ago when Sasu destroyed it for me did I realize I didn't kill them, but they were still dead."

"He was in a slump for weeks," Sasu elaborated. "And I'm shocked he has no Demon Inner anymore. That thing was no longer needed. There are only a few people that can live without one."

"Oh, Sasu-niichan!" Sakura gasped, facing him. "I forgot to tell you. Shannaro's still alive."

Everyone froze and looked at her. "WHAT?" 


	14. Swamps

"Yeah," Sakura replied, wiping away her tears. "She's alive. Suigetsu said she did it seconds after...or before...um...he said she did it when you were trying to get rid of her," she added.

Itachi looked at Sasu and the boy looked back. Then they did something no one their age should do.

They ran to Sakura and embraced her tightly, crying and begging for her forgiveness for hurting her. "We're sorry we're sorry we're sorry!" they blubbered, hugging her tighter.

Repeating the mantra, they hugged her and caressed her hair.

"Yo!" Sasuke yelled, trying to push them off. "Can you guys back off? Please? You're a little too close for comfort!" he complained, now plastered to Sakura. He felt a little more than awkward to be ignored so that two grown men could hug a girl he was already hugging and comforting.

"Thank you!" Sakura told him in a sing-song voice when the others finally released her.

Sasuke felt a throb in his chest at the word now. "Thank you" and "arigatou" both. It was as if he felt the pain he caused over again--memories of a past he longed to forget.

"So, do we have a plan?" Kabuto asked, breaking apart from Karin, but not losing body contact. He held her hand and laid his head on her shoulder. "Sakura, it's your game, so your play. Shannaro hit the ball in your court, so let's hit it back out now."She looked at him. "First, lose the dorky glasses. Please? Next, can you tell me what the fuck that meant?"

Sasu hit his head. "My sister got a mouth! What happened to the sweet and innocent little girl I left in Suna?"

"She got off the hard ground and decided to get on with her life," she retorted.

Sasuke's eyes widened as he looked at Sasu shocked. "You left her on the ground? You didn't even pick her up and put her somewhere?" he asked.

Sakura snorted. "You weren't much better Sasuke-kun. You left me on a hard bench in the middle of town when it was going to rain and didn't even think of the possibility that something could happen to me while I was unconscious."

It was Sasu's turn to look at Sasuke.

But now he was joined by Itachi yelling. "I thought you loved her! Why the hell did you do that to my sister? She could have been abducted, raped, killed..."

Sakura sighed as the three great men in her life started arguing with themselves. She looked to Kabuto who looked back and rolled his eyes.

"Rii rii!" Riku purred.

"Sakura-chan...we need to do something," Naruto whispered as tapped Sakura's shoulder.

Once again, Sai sighed and Sakura felt bad for him.

Man could she relate to him.

"Do you want to take a nap or something?" Sakura offered.

"Yes," Sai groaned. "How could you tell? I haven't slept more than five hours since you left," he complained, stretching his arms. "Naruto slept like a baby, though. Right through his watch-shifts. If he didn't get Hinata pregnant I think I'd still be asking him if he has a penis. He doesn't act like a man at all--or even a boy for that matter."

Sakura laughed and hugged Sai. "You've only had, what, three or so years with him? I've had since I was eight with him. Ten years of Naruto Uzumaki acting as if he were--"

Naruto interrupted. "Hey! Can we please stop talking about me?"

The two cousins sighed and Kabuto grimaced. "What if we just destroy Shannaro and go back to living like we did before?"

Sakura snapped her fingers and smiled. "That's it. Now...Sai, go down the hall and in the fourth room on your right. Get some rest. You look like hell and I hate knowing I'm the reason you look it."

He smiled and hugged her. "Thank you, Sakura-chan." He started to walk away.

Juugo sighed as he sat down.

Great.

First the base was overrun by two little kids and now it was Sakura's friends and family.

He decided to go off and find the beer before he got up the courage to ask Kabuto to let his Inner out because he wanted to have a chaotic twin help him get the kiddies' big-forms get together.

Preferably without their clothes on and in a way that would fuel Icha Icha for many years to come. Jaraiya was his god! He and his brother's friend, Kakashi Hatake, practically grew up and worshipped the books. It was such a bonding ritual to them that they became almost like brothers themselves--much closer than Juugo and his brother and Kakashi with him.

Sakura-hime and Sasuke-ouji looked at each other. "Do you think they forgot about us?" Sakura-hime asked Sasuke-ouji.

He shook his head. "Nah. They're probably just too happy with each other to notice us."

"But Itachi-niichan and Sasuke-niichan are fighting! So is Sasu-niichan! they must have forgotten us!" Sakura-hime whined, starting to cry.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto gasped, noticing the younger version of his sisterly kunoichi best friend. Then he saw the younger version of his stoic prodigy rival and brotherly friend. "Teme! You're both so small again!"

Sakura-hime laughed. "See? They didn't forget us! Hiya, I'm Sakura-hime and this is Sasuke-ouji!"

Sakura smiled and walked up to Sakura-hime. "Sakura-hime, this is my friend Naruto. He's like the oldest kid you'll ever meet. Naruto, this is my Inner. And the one that looks like Sasuke-kun is his Inner. Have fun with them--you're baby-sitting them. I have some work to do."

"What?" he yelled, but Sakura was already off in another corner. He sighed. "Is she always this on the go? That's something that happens in childhood I think."

Sakura-hime smiled. "Well then, you'll find out. Sasuke-ouji and me are basically just them as kids!"

"Sasuke-ouji and I--oh shit!" he corrected, then muttered, realizing what kind of hell he'd be in.

"SHUT UP ALREADY!" Sakura yelled, using her onsei no kekkei genkai to make it boom. "We have a plan...well, I do. We find Shannaro before she hatches and kill the fucking thing before she's reincarnated."

Sasuke agreed before he did a double-take. "Hatches?"

Itachi nodded. "Where would she be?" he asked, ignoring his brother.

"The Body-bond!" Kabuto yelled snapping the fingers on his free-hand.

Sakura smiled, then frowned. "That was severed when she was released."

Sasuke asked again, "Hatches?"

"No, it wasn't. To sever the Body-bond Shannaro needed to kill you. I was listening to Orochimaru when he told Shannaro when she was first released into you. So you two can still sense each other, but she won't sense you until she's hatched."

Again, Sasuke asked. "Hatched? Why would she hatch? Is she some fucking snake or something?"

Again he was ignored. "Great. So, we have Sakura sense where the egg is and find the fastest way to destroy it?" Sasu inputted.

"No. I'm not having the future of the Uchiha clan get hurt--even if she's redeeming herself," Itachi argued. "Sakura will sense where the egg is and then stay here on the base. But someone has to watch her."

"Wait. We were talking about me?" she interrupted. "Hell no! I'm going too! Why would I go through all that fucking work not to kill the thing that was inside me for years? Fucking bitch dies by only two hands: my left and my right."

Sasuke put a hand over her mouth. "All right. Now everyone hear will shut the fuck up already and explain to me why the hell we're looking for a fucking egg when we need to kill a person. Also, why is she hatching?"

Sakura ripped his hand away and dope-slapped him. "Dude, Orochimaru is a giant what? A snake. Do snakes give live birth? No, they're reptilian so they lay eggs--which happen to hatch. So, when he has a kid, how the hell do you think the kid is born? She's the daughter of a snake, so when she's born she's born like a snake. We need to go find a huge-ass egg that she'll fucking hatch from like she done before. Didn't you learn anything in the last five years? Or biology class?"

Sasuke sighed and whacked his head on the cement wall he was nearest to. "She doesn't even speak in proper grammar at the age of eighteen and she's making fun of me."

Itachi smiled sadistically as he patted his brother on the back. "Hey, that's why I'm leaving the revival of the Uchiha clan to you. No way am I dealing with a girl like Sakura as a wife."

Sasu laughed and nodded. "Having a sister like her is bad enough."


	15. ran out of funny names

"Are you sure you know how to play Hide and Seek, Naruto-niichan?" Sasuke-ouji asked, following him into a random room--four since they left the main room and on the right. "Something tells me this is a bad idea."

"Only because we're playing with Miss Great At Everything. Don't worry--it's fine," he replied. "Now you go in the closet and I'll hide in the bed."

As they did so, Naruto could have sworn he felt something next to him, but then thought better and assumed it was the wall. After waiting several minutes, the door opened again and through the crack where the light shined, Naruto could see the figure of a young child with a crown poke her head in the door.

He watched while stifling a laugh as she passed right by the bed and went to the closet. This kid was nothing like Sakura--Sakura-hime was GULLIBLE!

Sasuke-ouji groaned as Sakura-hime whispered that she found him, and then she silenced him again with a "shush" sound and a finger at her lips.

That made Naruto a bit suspicious. Did she know where he was or something? She walked back over to the bed and outstretched her hand, then snapped it back just before pulling back the sheet.

"Sakura-hime, why aren't you checking the bed?" Sasuke-ouji asked, fuming at Naruto for getting the good hiding spot.

"I don't want to wake up my cousin. Sai-niichan hasn't had any sleep for several days now," Sakura-hime replied, looking over to Sasuke-ouji.

"WHAT?" Naruto shouted, jumping up and knocking into that "thing" again. The second time, he realized it was indeed Sai, and he had jut woken him up. "Oh my fucking GOD! Why didn't anyone say anything?" he demanded, oblivious to Sai's attitude towards him right now.

Being smarter than Naruto--sadly--Sakura-hime and Sasuke-ouji backed away from Sai.

"Naruto, why is it you seem to be the base of all my problems? First, you wake me up to find my baby cousin, then make me take your watch-duties, and now YOU FUCKING DISRUPT MY SLEEPING ONCE AGAIN!" Sai yelled, punching him hard in the jaw and sending him across the room. "Why the hell were you in my bed anyways?"

"He was playing Hide and Seek!" Sakura-hime replied, smiling.

Sai sighed. He could be mad at Naruto easily, but Sakura and Sakura-hime? No. He always had a soft-spot for the adorable little cousin, and her being so young again and so innocent was enough to make him relax again. Still, something about Sakura-hime made him very uncomfortable.

Naruto got up and left, excusing himself as he ran away from the enraged artist-ninja. Even after they revived his old memories, he was still artistic, and only after Sakura regained the memories of her past did they realize he wanted to be an artist even at a very young age.

"Well, we should follow him. We can't just lose the baby-sitter--no matter how much we want to," Sasuke-ouji muttered, taking Sakura-hime's hand.

She nodded and ran over to Sai. Shocking him, she gave him a peck on the cheek. "Bye!"

Sai rolled his eyes and smiled. he could sleep after he knew what the rest of them were doing.

"Are you sure she'll be there?" Sasu asked his little sister.

"No. Do I look like a psychic?" she replied, looking at him like it was obvious and he was a moron for not knowing. "But the Body-bond thing makes me feel like I have to go there, so I'm guessing that'd be where she is. Besides, it's the only swampy area for...well, forever."

Sasuke shrugged and looked at his brother. He still didn't fully trust Itachi, but if Sakura said he wasn't to be killed, then he'd leave him alive.

Itachi sighed and looked over to Kabuto. He was sitting next to Sakura and was quietly discussing the plan with her. He said she could make the plan, but he wanted to double-check that it was similar to the plan he would make.

"So, we take and leave who?" Sasu asked.

Sakura looked up and started to think. "Sai stays to rest--poor guy hasn't gotten any. As much as I think the grown-child should stay to baby-sit the real kiddies, I think we should bring Naruto with us--he and the Kyuubi are good to have."

"I'm going too, then," Sasuke replied, walking over to her and sitting behind her and hugging her while he rest his face in the juncture between her shoulder and neck. "I'm never leaving the future Mrs. Sasuke Uchiha alone on a mission like this."

"Hey, she already has me!" Sasu argued. "No harm will ever come to my baby sister. No matter what. that's why she has me."

"Right. Because that's how the last eleven years have been. You deserted me, Sasu. Get used to me not trusting you," Sakura shot.

Karin sighed as she watched the Rasuto children argue--then she thought of something. "What if I watch the kiddies with Juugo and Suigetsu while Sai rests, and we all watch the fort at the same time. Then, you guys can all go out looking for the snake-girl and--"

"I'll stay here too!" Kabuto declared, wrapping an arm around Karin. "We need a medic here in case there are any injuries--especially to the cute mini-kiddies. That sounds so much cooler than kiddies."

Sakura sighed. Same family, just more pathetic. "Fine. We take everyone but Sai to rest, Suigetsu to watch the base, Juugo to throw wild parties--that he will clean up before anyone gets back," she threatened Juugo, facing him and giving her a worse glare than Sasuke's. "Kabuto and Karin so they can go fucking each other. And then Karin can watch the kiddies. Perfect."

Kabuto sighed and looked over at Karin. "And we thought we were being sly."

Karin laughed and got up, checking on Naruto and the kiddies. Instinctively, Kabuto followed, hoping for a detour, or a pit-stop, or SOMETHING!

Everyone sighed and Juugo turned to Sakura. "I will clean up after my parties, and I will do all the cleaning. But under no conditions will I clean up anything they do."

Sakura shrugged. "Whatever. I probably won't even make it back here. Either that, or I'll just decide to go back to Konoha. For some reason, I like Konoha a lot more than Suna."

Sasu grimaced at his sister. "Because that's where you were raised. You weren't going to stay with Itachi for no reason--we were trying to get you comfortable with living in the Uchiha District. And I think I might just have to talk to the Kazekage to let me move our clan to Konoha too."

"Gaara-niichan wouldn't mind. As long as the Akatsuki shit is off and left behind," she answered. "All right, so let's go."

Sasuke inhaled her scent again, and got up, pulling her up with him. "All right. And I guess I have to go with you, too."

As they started to leave, they heard two matching screams and turned. Sakura-hime and Sasuke-ouji ran up to their elder and hugged them.

Naruto ran after them and high-fived Juugo as he left. "Don't have too much fun while we're gone," he told him.

Juugo grinned. "That's what you want, but that's not how it's going to be."

"Sakura-neechan, why are you leaving me?" Sakura-hime replied. "You're leaving me and you're never coming back! You're just as bad as Sasu-niichan!" she cried.

"Sasuke-niichan, why are you leaving? And with him, too! Even if Sakura-neechan tells everybody he's innocent, he's still a monster and you still can't trust him--you don't trust him! He killed somebody--he had to have!" Sasuke-ouji cried, pointing at Itachi.

The brothers looked at each other. What do you do?

"Sakura-hime, I'm not leaving you!" Sakura told her, kneeling down before her. "I'm going away, but I'll be back. I promise."

"Sasu-niichan promised he'd come back too and he didn't! He promised he'd never let you get hurt and he left you to fend for yourself!" Sakura-hime cried still.

"No, Sweetie, he kept his promises. It's hard to see, but he did come back--he came back when he was sure being far away was worse than being here. Even all those miles away, he was still watching over me.

"He never let me get hurt...Sasu-niichan even helped. He's the reason I had to become strong...independent. I don't think I realized before though. I just saw that, though. All I wanted to see was that he abandoned me, not that he loved me and was raising me the only way he thought he could rightly."

Sakura-hime stopped tearing up and smiled. Right before Sakura's very eyes, she watched herself get bigger again, until she saw herself as if looking through a mirror.

"Thank you," Sakura-hime whispered, starting to shine--glow, really. "You need me out there, and I can't help when you're still drawn back by a past you've never realized you can't change."

Sakura only choked on a nod and started to cry herself as her Inner rejoined her body.

"Sasuke-ouji, he didn't kill anybody!" Sasuke protested. "And I didn't trust a lot of poeple--I know I can trust him!"

"No! he has Mangekyou Sharingan! He had to kill somebody he loved to get it! he said so himself!" Sasuke-ouji replied. "And if he lied, than you can't trust him still!"

Sasuke sighed. When he thought about it, it seemed rational. But his heart told him that it wasn't true. then he thought back to his past. "Sasuke-ouji, he went crazy that night. I don't think he even realized that he said what he did. And even if I don't want to trust him, deep down I know I do. That's something you can't change."

"Then what's the true way to get Mangekyou? Something bad has to happen!" Sasuke-ouji argued.

"What's bad is you lose somebody, but then it's a good something too. You realize that no matter what, it wasn't your fault if you didn't mean for it to happen and you didn't want it to happen."

Suddenly Sasuke-ouji smirked and became an older version of Sasuke. Smiling, Sasuke-ouji looked at his mirror image. "And you just got it. Sasuke, it wasn't our faults. You need to realize that. And I think you need me back."

Sasuke smirked as his Inner started to glow and rejoin his body. "I think you're right."

Kabuto and Karin looked right at each other and replied and unison, "We're still going to stay here!"


	16. ran out of chapter names

"This is hopeless!" Naruto moaned, trekking through the bayou where Shannaro should be...growing in.

"Naruto, shut up," Sakura commanded, shocking her brother and the Uchiha boys. "Just be glad I haven't turned you into a girl yet. I swear, if I wasn't afraid of Hinata-chan never talking to me again, you'd probably be able to say yes to Sai all those years ago."

"Yes to what?" Sasu asked. He didn't like the direction that this conversation was going. "What was Sai asking Naruto?"

Before Sakura could answer, Naruto clamped a hand over her mouth. "Nothing! It was just a joke for Team Seven alum! If you weren't from Team Seven, you wouldn't get it."

Sakura rolled her eyes and stared pointedly at Sasuke. After a few minutes of her silent order, he understood what she was telling him. So...he was the last person to get it from him. Sasuke nudged Naruto away from Sakura and leaned her back against his chest as he started to speak to his old teammate...from Team Seven.

"So, dobe? What would an old teammate from Team Seven get as opposed to the others. After all...I was Team Seven too."

Naruto eyes bulged out. he was not counting on that! He didn't even remember Sasuke was on his team at one point. But then he thought back to all the missions he and Sasuke were on...Oh yeah! So THAT'S why they were on those missions together.

As Naruto choked on his words and turned brighter than Sasuke's sacred tomatoes, Sakura smirked.

The big idiot had gotten away with too many things far too many times. Besides, karma was a bitch, and she was the only bitch there to get back at him for Sai not getting any sleep. A painter-nin would be a very good person to have in a case like this.

Naruto was fumbling and Itachi smiled. The idiot and the kyuubi both were at a loss of words. After traveling with them for so long, he realized it was a very rare spectacle, and to see a GIRL of all people be the cause of it was even greater.

Lady, Itachi remembered. He may have remembered Sakura as a little girl, but she wasn't one anymore. She was never really a little girl--not at heart. She was the one that gave him the mangekyou in the first place.

While everyone thought it was because his best friend died, it was really because Sakura blamed herself and he had to come to terms with how it wasn't a fault and he couldn't change anything.

"Naruto, you didn't answer my--" Sasuke started.

"Sai-niichan used to ask if he had a penis. If Hinata-chan wasn't making me show any restraint, he could have said yes to him. The ass is a lazy bastard sometimes and I've wanted to pummel it since probably the third day I knew him."

Sasuke smirked. Well...that was a little more than disturbing. But still hilarious, as he thought back to everything he and Team Seven shared, he realized all the things he missed back then. "I thought you said once he was like a brother."

"A brother, yes, but that doesn't change the fact that he can still bug me. I can just imagine Itachi-niichan and Sasu-niichan can agree that brothers and sisters aren't always great to hang out with."

As they got deeper in, Sakura could feel the urges to move around. Instead of straight, she veered off to the left, and through trees. as they followed her, she snaked her way around the swamp as if she had been there her life, despite her never being there once before.

"Hey," Sasu said to Itachi. "What do you think everyone's doing back at the lair."

Itachi's eyes bulged. "I'm not even going to imagine."

"Oh hell yeah! Now that's what I'm talking about!" Juugo yelled as he watched the strippers. He blackmailed Kabuto into letting his Inner come out, and they were having plenty of fun there. "Let me see some more!"

His Inner groaned. Since it'd be too confusing for them--not to mention insane--to call each other both Juugo, he decided his Inner's name would be Hikaru. and while Juugo was having the time of his life, Hikaru was not.

Why on EARTH would he be interested in this?

"Harder, Kabuto, harder!" Hikaru heard Karin scream a few rooms away. Man, those two had been at it for...as long as Juugo had been partying. That had to be three days now.

"When are they going to get back?" he asked himself, putting his head in his hands. "I am begging all the kami-sama out there that they come back soon."

"Suck me dry ladies!" Suigetsu yelled, running into the room stark naked. Before he could go near any girls, Hikaru stopped him. "What? Juugo, Hikaru, whoever you are, let me go. There are hot babes here. I haven't gotten any in years!"

Hikaru sighed. "Whose watching all the important stuff then? Security, Retrieved Information, anything?" Hikaru asked. It was like he was in college--no one really did anything, they just threw wild parties that ended with sex every time.

"Um...who cares?" Suigetsu replied. "Come on, I've needed a screw ever since that pink-haired babe got here, and I wasn't allowed to touch her--anywhere. And then her other...thing showed up, and I couldn't screw a kid! Let me have a quick screw and then I'll get back to the important stuff. If you were out when that girl was here, you'd be horny right now too."

Hikaru sighed and Juugo whooped at the friend's arrival. It was like hanging out with Kakashi again. He knew better, he just didn't listen or care.

"What's taking them so long?" Kakashi asked, looking at the base. Then he decided. "Nah. they're taking too long. I'm going in."

Then he heard the cry--more of a moan. Almost as if someone was having a major climax.

It sounded like Ino and Shikamaru now that he thought of it. He spied on them all the time, and he listened to them the other night when the Akatsuki had made it in.

He rubbed his head at the memory. Ino and Shikamaru fell asleep with Shikamaru still inside her, and when he went to wake them up, he was knocked out by...Sasori maybe. But it was definitely someone from the Akatsuki.

Another moan. Damn it, it was getting to be a brothel! He was going and he was going to make Jaraiya proud, or break it up if it didn't pan out right. But if he took off his mask, things would pan out--a lot more for the better.

Unless she came from a brothel he got kicked out of. He hadn't thought of that.

Another moan. damn it, he was going, no matter who was in there. H e was getting horny!

Sasu shuddered at the thought. Then he looked at Sasuke and Sakura, still close together and holding hands.

"It's a good thing we didn't leave those two back there then," he told Itachi.

Naruto heard it and shrugged. "I don't know. They'd be pretty hot to watch. Not to sound really perverted...well, more than I do already...but I want a friend to have a baby soon. Hinata and I already have a child on the way within the six months, and I don't want the thing to have no friends it's age that came from my friends."

Sasuke stopped when he heard him. "Dobe, what the fuck did that even mean?"

"I don't even really know myself," Naruto admitted. Then he beamed. "Oi, teme! Did I tell you yet? Do you know yet? I'm going to have a kid! I beat you at something."

Sasuke whacked his head. Sakura sighed. "Naruto, you're not the only of your friends to be having a kid. Temari-neechan and Lee-niisan have kids, and Gaara-niichan have them. And TenTen and Neji are pregnant with a kid--"

Sasu stopped her. "You mean to tell me that my baby cousins have kids before I do? What the hell has happened to me? I'm old, I'm senile, and I'm going to have kids around the same age as my baby sister's kids!"

Sakura slapped him. "Hey! do I look pregnant? No. Now shut up and stop talking to me about babies! We still have a big baby to get rid of before she hatches!"

Sasuke shuddered at the thought of watching a human hatch. All that slimy stuff enveloping the newborn child, the cracking of the shell covered amongst the body of the..."Sakura, how old will Shannaro be when she's born?"

Sakura thought. "Good question...Since she was supposed to be close to Sasu's age, I'd guess she'd be born back to her age. She was forced into a smaller body, and she wasn't fully back to her power when she left, which is why she's hatching instead of going back to her first state."

"Okay," Sasuke replied, acting like she knew what the hell she just said. "So how do you think the guys are doing back at the base?""Strippers, sex, moaning, lots of messes, blackmail for Juugo's Inner, and a very annoyed Inner," Sakura replied.

Juugo tried to get her to release his Inner before using blackmail on her, but she refused. If that Inner wasn't with him, he could be ten-times more unstable around girls. It was like having a college frat boy and his younger brother visiting. And yet, she knew that he had to have gotten Kabuto to get his Inner out.

"So...what are we looking for again?" Naruto asked as he bat a hanging branch out of his face. "Damn you trees! I am the great Kyuubi!" he roared, the Kyuubi taking control after his agitation with the persistent branch. "If this man's father hadn't locked me in this body, you would feel my wrath! I uprooted whole forests, and I wouldn't be afraid to do it again!"

Sakura sighed as she whacked Naruto across the head. "Grow up and get used to it," she ordered to the Kyuubi. "If the Fourth Hokage put you there, you're going to stay there. End story, case closed."

Naruto grumbled a bit as they walked on.

"Temari!" Lee whined, trekking through the forest. "This is so boring! Why can't we have a really cool mission?"

"Gaara wants us to get rid of the huge-ass egg in the swamp, so we will. End story, case closed," she replied, using her cousin Sasu's favorite motto from back as a child. "Have you heard from Sai or anyone lately?"

"Nope!" he replied smiling. "Naruto went to go search for Sakura-chan and woke up Sai. If I hear from him, he'll having me humming through the air."

Temari sighed. "Men..."

"Men..." Sakura muttered, walking out of the bayou and into a forest. "All right. She's in the swamp, but here's the plan. let's not trek through it anymore."

The men looked at her like she just said something dumb. "Why?" Itachi asked.

"Because, we need the upper hand--which we can't get from the swamp--and I like living, and knowing that someday I can have kids, and not having a disease that Tsunade has no cure for. But mostly living."

"Explain," Itachi demanded.


	17. Chapter 17

"Great. And now we hit the swamp," Temari muttered, stopping and letting Lee crash into her.

"Hey!" he started before he fell on his rear. "Itai! Why did you stop?"

When he saw the giant swamp he groaned. Swamps were full of bugs, and animals, and parasites, and diseases. He cringed at all the diseases he thought he could be catching just by standing near it.

Kankuro sighed. Even after he was interrupted on his honeymoon, he had to go on the egg-hunting mission with them. He pulled his brother-in-law up and trekked on along next to the swamp.

Just because you were somewhere, doesn't mean you have to be affected by it. That was something he had learned from Sai and Gaara.

Suddenly before them on the trek was another party. The party was a motley one. Tall raven-haired men and another with a mop of blonde hair. They all seemed to be following a fifth, but he was too far ahead to see.

Quickly they went into offensive mode and started to attack. As Lee threw a punch at the blonde-mop, the fifth person wheeled to the behind and blocked it.

Before they could register what was happening, the person threw a punch into Lee's abdomen that sent him flying into the willow on the other side of the thick swamp, and sliding down the tree into the bayou.

"Lee!" Temari gasped, gearing up her fan to hit the party. "That's it! Now you've done it. You're just--Sakura-chan?"

Sakura blinked. Sure enough. She was attacking and defending her own family.

Sasu laughed at the blank look on her face, and in turn got stares and gasps.

"Sa-Sasu-niichan?" Kankuro spoke. "Y-you're here."

"No. I'm in Otogakure at Orochiamru's old base and I'm having wild orgies with Juugo and his poor Inner," Sasu replied sarcastically, rolling his eyes. "Hey, Otouto. Imouto. And whose the bushy-eyed one--is that green spandex?" Sasu asked, laughing.

Sakura slapped her head. Lee had gotten over dressing like an idiot, but on missions sometimes he forgot. Apparently this was a mission he needed the "Green Beast of Konoha" for. Just freakin' great.

"Sasu-niichan, that's Temari-neechan's husband, Lee. Lee-san, this idiot is my brother, Sasu. Ignore him and he might go away. Temari-neechan, where's Gaara-niichan?"

"Come on Gaara! If you want to stay a kazekage, you have to finish all of the paperwork," Tsunade ordered, handing him a rather large stack.

"But I wanted to go egg-hunting!" he protested, taking the papers. "Why did you make me send Neechan and Niichan and Lee? You know they'll screw up!"

Tsunade thought about it for a minute...

"Just get back to the papers," she replied, slamming the door to his office in Suna while his family laughed from the window and left on the mission.

The three looked at each other after Lee was back in the forest back. "He didn't want to come. Kazekage business," they replied in unison, starting to crack up at the memories.

Was it THEIR faults that Lee normally went "save the world" on missions? No--it was Lee's. and Gaara refused to allow Lee to just stay home and watch the kids.

Sakura sighed. "why are you here?"

"Egg-hunting," they replied again.

"Great. So you can help!" Naruto piped in.

Kankuro was shocked. Whoa! They were still there? He thought he was imagining things. And then he saw the Uchiha brothers. He had always remembered Sakura and Sasu spend a lot of their time with the Uchiha boys, but they didn't realize the group still mixed.

Sasuke sighed and nodded towards the Sand Siblings Minus One and Add Another as most got in the habit of calling it. "Why are you egg-hunting? Like an Easter thing, or a Kill the Huge-Ass Egg Thing That Appeared Here kind of thing?"

"Um...the latter?" Temari replied.

Itachi sighed. "Come on. We're on our way anyways. Might as well use the extra help. And I think Sakura needs another girl here."

"Yes, but I'm getting two boys too. That means I need two more girls. I wish we had Hinata and TenTen here," she complained, looping her arm around her cousin's waist as Temari did the same. "To the egg Monkey-style?"

"Monkey-style," she replied, walking with their legs swinging far out to the side.

"So, Sasuke, what do you think the guys are doing back at the base?" Naruto asked as they followed behind.

"Hey, Naruto, where's my cousin anyways? I wanted to see Sai and show him a new trick of mine," Kankuro added, walking next to them. "I haven't seen him since you dragged him out of Konoha.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?" Sai yelled, coming into the giant sex-pit that was the main room in the base. There was a miserable Juugo, a Juugo inside a lady, Suigetsu in another lady with one more on top of him, and with a grand total of five women at once was..."KAKASHI?"

"Hehe," Kakashi started, not in the least embarrassed that he had been seen in such a compromising position. A girl underneath him, a girl with his hand up playing up in her...oh god he shouldn't see that! Another girl with the same fate, and one more with Kakashi tongue...

"YOU ARE ALL PERVERTED AND I WANT YOU TO SHUT THE FUCK UP. WHORES CAN PACK UP AND LEAVE, AND SUIGETSU BACK TO WHATEVER THE FUCK YOUR JOB WAS. WHY ARE THERE TWO JUUGOS AND WHEN DID KAKASHI SHOW UP?" Sai yelled, making Hikaru much more cheery.

Then Sai saw something that made him gasp. Well, he already saw it before, but it was just computing. To see his tongue, that meant Kakashi's mask was...

He cleaned up nicely, Sai had to admit. He had a strong jaw and a clean-shaven face. With the mask off, he looked more roguishly handsome than he did--as in, he actually LOOKED handsome. That surprised Sai.

As the girls got up and left, clothes balled in fists as they walked away cammando with Kakashi following, Hikaru walked over and hugged Sai. "Hi! I'm Juugo's Inner. We call me Hikaru. Thank you so much for saving me. Where have you been for the past five days?"

"Where I'll be for the next five days. Sleeping," he replied. As he walked away, he shot over his shoulder while Juugo and Suigetsu tried to bring the women back, "Don't even think about it. And Juugo you better clean everything up, just like you said you would."

Hikaru smirked at Juugo as his jaw fell open. Suddenly he found a mop in his hand too. 'Just like when we visited our brother at the Jounin Academy! I get stuck cleaning up someone else's mess!' the Inner thought to himself.

"I don't know," Sasuke replied as he thought. "I know we left my band of idiots to have sex, but it's not like Sai would interrupt them. He's probably still asleep."

Sakura stopped, and so did the party. In front of them was the snake-egg and Sasuke almost gagged. Kankuro did, while Itachi still wasn't done vomiting until he started to up-chuck his own blood.

Twelve feet tall and seven feet wide, the egg was oval-shaped and soft-shelled. almost pristine, half was submersed in the bayou as if the creatures around had tried to drown it. It looked almost like the lice a girl--Ami--had spread throughout his first grade class once.

"So, Sakura, how do we approach?" Itachi asked, wiping his mouth with the sleeve of his Akatsuki cloak. He and Sasu and Kabuto had been rid of them the day they joined Sai and Naruto, but they kept them around for emergency--like to wipe the bile away.

"Head on. Sasu, do you know any fire?" Sakura asked, cocking her head and just staring at it.

Sasuke watched in amaze as Sasu flicked his hand and in it was a small ball of fire. "Yep. Do we all hit it with fire, or are we going to plan this?"

"The way I see it, the egg will hatch soon. I need you three to burn it until Lee can kicked through with his taijutsu. Then we need Temari told hold Shannaro in there long enough for Naruto's Rasengan to annihilate her. If she escapes back out, then Chidori and Rasengan will work. Kankuro-niichan, you need to use Crow to keep it in place, though. make a puppet of her."

Kankuro saluted his agreement as he strung it up. The Uchiha and Sasu got straight to work with burning through, but there was a problem.

"Hey! She's cracking out!" Temari yelled, getting her fan out and trying to keep Shannaro in.

But Shannaro overpowered them and knocked Temari back, having Lee there to catch her. She cackled at the group and looked straight on at Sakura. "So, you thought that a bunch of morons could beat me, just because we're Body-bond? I assume that's the only reason why you found me."

"Hold on. Sasu, there! We didn't need to do that--Suna found the egg just fine without having telepathic connections to the thing inside!" Sakura complained.

Shannaro laughed again. "Well, I guess he truly wasn't a faithful boyfriend then."

Sakura raised her eyebrows and held her arms out. "He let his cousin kill you with a katana and refused to allow you to pleasure him in either your body or mine. Do you still have that DILLUSION that he likes you and that someday soon you'll get married?" Sakura asked, incuriously.

Naruto smacked his head with his hand. She was talking to creepy snake-lady...for what reason again?

_"Why should I welcomeYour dominationWhy should I listenTo explanationsI'm not pretendingTo make it simpleTry to be somethingExperimentalYou don't turn me offI will never failThings I loved before,are now for saleKeep yourself awayFar away from meI'll Forever stayYour perfect enemyNo longer waitingRemove illusionsNo more complainingForget confusionNo more compassionNot sentimental__I am now somethingExperimentalYou don't turn me offI will never failThings I loved before,are now for saleKeep yourself awayFar away from meI'll Forever stayYour perfect enemy," _Sakura sang, hitting her in wave after wave of sound waves.

To add to the pain, Sakura rushed forwards in amazing speed and threw punches and kicks at Shannaro as if she were nothing.

Shannaro stood back up. Her hair was an onyx, and her eyes were that of sapphires at midnight. Now Sasuke understood why Sakura seemed to change so much when she was using this kekkei genkai.

Suddenly she flipped and picked two fans up from off the ground. "Now you're about to learn how a true Last handles fans," she told her. She aimed her fans forwards, then flicked her wrists to open them entirely. "Temari?"

"Gladly," she replied, hoping in her with her giant fan as well.

"Remember last year when Shannaro took over with those fans? That was bad. I was scared. and now we have Miss Immaturity on it," Kankuro said to Lee and Naruto. "Is Hinata better now?"Sasuke knit his brows together. "What happened?" Sauske asked.

"Okay, so you have a song that'll get us more power here?" Temari asked as they started to moved in and out throwing wind around.

"Yeah. Just be careful. This one is kind of...odd. I'm going to switch to the Flame Fans, okay?" she yelled across the bayou, clapping her hand together and getting two new fans in her hand.

Sasuke watched her. She controlled fire, too? No wonder why they were arranged to be married!

_"Can you tell me, softly  
How you'll always haunt me  
Can you help me  
Hold me  
Come to me now, slowly  
You caress me, smoothly  
Calm my fears and soothe me  
Move your hands across me  
Take my worries from me  
I will sacrifice  
I will sacrifice  
All I have in life  
To clear my conscience  
I will sacrifice  
I will sacrifice  
All I have in life  
Sacrifice, sacrifice  
Can you feel me, solely  
Deeper still and wholly  
With your understanding  
And your arms around me  
Can you help me  
Hold me  
Whisper to me, softly  
Move your hands across me  
Take my worries from me  
I will sacrifice  
I will sacrifice  
All I have in life  
To clear my conscience  
I will sacrifice  
I will sacrifice  
All I have in life  
Sacrifice, sacrifice  
I will sacrifice  
Will sacrifice  
Will sacrifice  
Will sacrifice  
I will sacrifice  
I will sacrifice  
All I have in life  
To clear my conscience  
I will sacrifice  
I will sacrifice  
All I have in life  
Sacrifice, sacrifice!" _she screamed, tossing a giant flame ball at Shannaro.

Shannaro fell back and Sakura put the fans on the ground. Sasuke came running over to Sakura, and saw than fans were gone. It didn't matter as he hugged her from behind, resting his head into the crook of her neck as she leaned back into him.

But then...Shannaro started to move. So, was she dead?


	18. Finale

"You really think you can beat me?" Shannaro asked, laughing as Sakura stood and watched her in shock. But she used the Flame Fans! No one ever escaped those when used properly! "I'm Orochimaru's daughter. The same power that ran through his veins run through mine!"

Then she realized something. It was like repetition! When Shannaro was dying, her father put Shannaro inside of an enemy. When Orochimaru was killed, Shannaro had taken over her body. And now that Shannaro was dead again...

"Niichan, Itachi, get your flames up!" Sakura yelled back, confusing Sasuke. "We have a snake to burn out, and he's about to shed his skin again."

"Very good," Shannaro answered, putting a hand to her face and ripping off the skin. But under the skin was Orochimaru's face. Then when he spoke Sasuke heard his voice. "How did you know? Do you know how old we are yet?"

"Everything you do is like a snake--even peel bodies like layers of skin. Who's to say you don't do that to your daughter? But Shannaro isn't your daughter, is she? If she was, you'd look a lot older. She's your wife, isn't she?"

As she watched Orochimaru's face strain in annoyance and embarrassment, she laughed.

"No, I'm kidding. I was on a roll, so I wanted to finish it. You're...I heard myths with a man before, so you have to be hundreds of years old. The Snake-man was you, wasn't it? That's why you wanted Sasuke-kun--snakes crave heat."

"But Ototou's an ice-cube!" Itachi protested. "Sasuke, put up your guard."

As Sasuke complied, Sakura sighed. Everyone expected her to know everything about what was going on already, but she was still piecing everything together herself. She knew just barely more than they all did.

"We don't care where we get our heat from, Weasel," Orochimaru replied, shooting a filthy look at him. "We only care for heat. And you're just as fine as your brother. I could use both of you. Maybe even all three of you boys."

"What? Am I not important anymore?" Sakura whined, facing him. "Why doesn't anyone ever count me? And why would you still need us? You can use your hands again."

"So, you are smart. Yes, but I still need a way to create heat that even my hands can't. Only the Uchiha and a select Rasuto can control that. And as it happens, your brother is the last living Rasuto that can control fire. Him and the Last Master, but no one's seen her for years."

Sasuke looked at Sakura. Wasn't she the Last Master? He saw her right there, didn't he? What was that child-molester talking about now?

"He's dead," Itachi whispered to Sasu.

Sasu nodded. "That idiot is his own weakness. With that last seal on, he can't tell who she is. This is perfect."

Sakura glared at the Snake-man and slashed her hand out to the side and having a fan appear in it. Sasuke looked at it.

The style of a wave cresting and reaching far across it. It was small, handheld and cherry wood. The actual fan was dark blue, and had Rasuto Sakura--Rasuto no Tatsujin written across the tip of the fan in black.

"Oh shit he's dead," Sasu and Itachi said in unison.

"Does anyone else feel a little left out?" Naruto asked, looking at the Fire-wielders.

"Dude, it's the story of my life," Kankuro replied, Lee nodding in agreement. "Even my talent isn't special with Sakura. She is the MASTER of every talent within the Rasuto clan. Actually, mine came from my dad, but hey."

"Just be lucky Mom was able to marry out of the clan," Temari whined. "I still had to inherit wind from our clan--do you know what it's like to have a talent that your younger cousin the prophecy does two-thousand times better?"

Naruto shook his head and looked at his hand where his Rasengan would rest in battle. He thought he was jealous of Sakura for being able to do so many things so well that he took his Rasengan for granted. But seeing people that were really affected by Sakura put things in perspective.

"So, what do we do now?" Lee asked, unnerved. They were watching a powerful man go up against other powerful people.

"Now? Well...Now we wait," Temari replied, looking at the scene unfolding.

"This isn't right," Kankuro argued, but nonetheless watching too.

"So, dear Sasuke-kun is back with his beloved Cherry Blossom?" Oorchimaru taunted. "Oh so scary! The girl can conjure up a fan. Out of thin air! I'm so scared now! Maybe I should surrender!" he mocked.

"Good," Sakura replied, flicking her wrist out again and a second fan coming out in the other hand. "That'd make things a lot easier for me."

Sasuke looked at the other fan. Made of the same material, and with the same thing written on the tip, but only to have a fire ball run across it. Then he thought of something--water and fire! It was like Yin and Yang.

"Well then, we have to. Don't we?" he mocked.

Orochimaru tried to rush down at Sakura, but was knocked back as she flicked her wrist upwards with the fan, sending water towards him. Handling it like a she had used fans her whole life--which she possibly may have--she fought him off only using water.

"You dumbass!" she shot, whacking her fans together and causing steam. it shot him head-on and blew him back, face burnt. "I am the Last Master. I am and always will be the power that got away from you!"

Sasuke was frozen. That was, until Itachi whacked his back. "Showtime."

As Sasu snapped both fingers, sparks lighted and fireballs came to rest in the palms of each hand. He and Itachi formed katon no jutsu and waited. Itachi moved to put them in a circle, and blast the flame in the middle.

"Sasuke, you have to add your flame. We need to get it hell-hot here," Sasu told him, pointing his hands towards the middle and casting an arc of fire towards the middle as well.

As Sasuke complied, he felt the Flame fan as Sakura called it start to float towards them. Then he looked up and saw it suspended by the water fan and a wind from nowhere. The fan started to explode fire and water, but the fire was igniting the water.

He looked at Sasu and the older boy smirked. Sasu then looked over to Itachi. "I need to get her away from that damn hokage. She learned how to make her water fan shot alcohol," he said, focusing on keeping the arc alive.

Itachi almost choked when he heard that. His little sister could do WHAT? But then he realized it was helping flame the fire more, making it reach up to almost the fans themselves, but steaming when it came in contact with the water fan.

'She trained it. She's focused her energy everywhere!' he thought. She controlled the winds to their place, and she controlled the fans releasing their energy. But was she so focused to fight and control every aspect of the fans and wind at the same time?

"Temari, help her!" Naruto ordered, watching his friend start to flag against the sannin. "She can't hold on!"

Lee looked around. "Naruto-san, I don't know how she can help. Sakura is a skilled genjutsu, ninjutsu and taijutsu master. She has everything all set up. Even the flames seem to be her doing."

Temari felt frozen. She saw this before. As a kid, she would sit at the Rasuto compound every day after training or the ninja academy and have her mother's sister, Misao, read her every prophecy they had.

But it wasn't enough. One day she went searching and her grandfather--Sakura's grandfather, as well--showed her a scroll with the prophecy of the Last Master in it. They read it together, and she saw the illustrations.

"No hope," she whispered, tears falling.

Kankuro looked at her, confused. "What's no hope?" he asked. "Helping Sakura? I bet you can. Everyone can help--I know it!"

Temari started to cry. "No! There's no hope! In all the prophecies I've read the Rasuto no Tatsujin must face an evil no others have ever faced. That's the battle of life and death. The evil is...immortality. He's going to face her against living forever or dying to save us!" she sobbed. "And she's going to kill herself for us. You know that. She always will."

Kankuro looked at her, then realized what she was saying. "You dummy! That was the other Sakura Haruno! Ours has a different fight!"

The girl looked at Kankuro confused. What did he know? He never saw what she had seen...

"You shouldn't listen to Grandfather Rasuto after training. You're too prone to an influence. That was Sakura Akira Rasuto's prophecy, not Sakura Amaterasu-Asuka Rasuto's prophecy. God! besides, he was the First of the Last, not a Last Master. We need to get you reading lessons."

Teamari was shocked, then suddenly mad. If he grandfather wasn't dead, she'd kill him herself. Then she thought of what was happening. "I can hold the winds for her."

As she got her fan out and made Sakura aware to drop her winds so she could take over, Kankuro talked to Naruto and Lee.

"She's trying to lure Orochimaru over to the heat. When she does, we need to get him though the heart. Then Sakura can go and finish him. Lee, help her weaken him enough to want to go to the fire."

Lee nodded and sped over to her. Sakura smiled. "Arigatou, Kankuro-niichan! All right! Let's do this!"

As Lee drop-kicked Orochimaru from behind, Sakura whacked him with a flaming ball from the front. She could do it without fans, but it was easier with them. When they did that once, Sakura yelled back. "Kankuro-niichan! Distract please? Lee and I are going up."

"Naruto, you have to Rasengan his heart," Kankuro ordered as he ran off.

Sasuke didn't understand. What did she mean they were going up? No one went anywhere with HIS future-wife! But he saw shocked him. As looked over to Sasu and saw him smirk.

"She's flying. That must mean the last seal's broken now. Sasuke-kun, that takes lots of control and chakra, so don't even think about trying it. While walking upside down and on water means channeling chakra to your feet, flying is channeling chakra to the air around you and harmonizing it with the natural chakra in the world."

Sasuke's eyes widened. Then he watched bemused as Lee took off his giant orange legwarmers and started to remove weights.

_Old school training. Weigh down your legs with twenty kilograms... _he trailed off, watching the weights fall fast on Orchimaru and digging him deep in the earth. _That's more like twenty tons! What the fuck_? he screamed in his head.

Temari laughed. Poor guy missed the Chuunin exams when Lee did that against Gaara. She still remembered how she had first reacted to that.

As Orochimaru got back up, he could feel the heat. He craved that heat! He moved quickly towards it, but was blasted by Naruto with his Rasengan. He fell forwards, into the fire.

The boys cringed while Temari looked away. Even with her brother being so destructive, she couldn't watch a demon burn.

Naruto watched in awe as he saw the power of his Rasengan. He was powerful! If he never did a thing again, he knew he would remember that he had power that could rival Sakura's.

Sometimes.

But at least he could be proud he wasn't dead-last!

"He's dead," Sakura told them as the flames dissipated. She checked his pulse, and she was positive.

"Just to be safe," Sasu started, walking over and chopping off his head. Then he turned to Naruto. "You did great kid. Not the kyuubi, but you."

Sakura hugged Naruto. "You did it! You killed Orochimaru!" she whispered, kissing hsi cheek.

He blushed as the Uchiha glared at him. "I didn't do anything wrong! Don't be mad at me," Naruto protested.

Sasuke smiled and noogied the guy. "Nah, you did something Naruto. Good job. I think this is the first time I can say this. You did something right. You killed the Snake-man. Your parents must be proud."

Naruto smiled as they made their way back to the base. The Sand Siblings Minus One Plus One left to go back to Suna and Gaara, but the original five all walked back to the base for some major shocks.

"So, team Seven is back to normal?" he asked.

Sasuke put his hand behind Naruto's back and entwined his fingers with Sakura's holding her hand. He looked across them and looked Sakura right in the eye. "No."

Naruto was shocked. "Why not?" he wailed, walking in front of them before turning and walking backwards in front of them.

Sasuke and Sakura moved closer, and Sasuke let of her hand to put his arm around her shoulders and rest her head on his shoulder. He kissed the top of her head, and the tucked the source of all her beautiful pink hair under his chin.

"Because the old Team Seven didn't include Sakura and I in love and making all those little Uchiha babies," he replied, smiling.

To humor him, she put her arm around his waist and the other quickly pressed against a man's most sensitive spot before she wrapped it around his waist as well.

"Then you might want to start before we go back to Konoha. Tsunade decided part of your punishment when you go back is to be abstinent for three months. She has more stuff, too, but that's probably the biggest thing for you two."

Sasuke and Sakura looked at her, eyes wide. They had to what?

But then Sakura whispered something into Sasuke's ear that put a glimmer in his eyes.

Before Naruto could say anything, Sasu and Itachi were arguing with them.

"No way are you two starting anything while we're with you! Back in Konoha, but not at the base. Take your punishment like real adults!" Itachi yelled, turning red just thinking of them doing that. "I can wait for a few months to be an uncle. If you two still aren't married by the time your punishment is over, then fine. You're old enough to make your own decisions."

"Why did I even take you to America?" Sasu yelled, thinking of what Sakura had said. He had gotten several many talents from his clan, and one was fire. Another was hearing. "I thought I made it clear to get rid of Lords of Acid from your music collection!"

"Well, I did. But that doesn't mean your collection had to be missing it!" she replied, beaming.

Naruto looked at the group. "What did she say?" he asked.

Sakura looked at Sasuke mischievously. "Face down, ass up. That's the way we like to fuck," she recited. One of the most common line in the song.

A/N: This is the last chapter. Thank you for reading it. If you want to know what goes on after this, make it up. I'm not writing it.


	19. Attention Fans

Hello,

This is not the writer you know as Camy-Tay. This is her brother, Jae, and I regret to inform you that she will no longer be able to write stories for you. November 18 of 2009, we received word that Cam had cancer. We caught it during her check-up after having the tapeworm removed, but we had not caught it in time.

April 17, 2010, Cam passed away from leukemia.

It has taken me almost a year to figure out her password to tell everyone what has happened. I am sorry for all of you that expected updates. I don't know why she ever made her password the mascot of the first boarding school she attended, but whatever. I loved her, but she was weird.

That being said, I know nothing about , except that Cam wrote on this website and she would want her followers to know she passed. I think they receive updates on her every entry, but I will try to post this letter at the end of every story she's written.

I will keep her page up and try to have her friends write stories in her memory so that she may live on, but I haven't talked to many of them since her funeral.

I'm sorry and God bless Cam. May she be in good hands.


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